


Le Chatelier's Principle

by LyricalPary (hoseoky)



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alpha Luke, Alpha Michael, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Beta Calum, Enemies to Lovers, Flirting, M/M, Omega Ashton, Pining, Power Bottom Ashton, Power Play, Prejudice themes, Smut, Waiters & Waitresses, all of them work at a fancy French restaurant, i don't speak French so there is very minimal French ok sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-14 10:49:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 54,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7168076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoseoky/pseuds/LyricalPary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since being promoted to head waiter, Luke had had one problem that came in the form of a six foot, curly-headed, hazel eyed <i>demon</i>. And by demon, he meant his frustratingly stubborn, unfairly attractive co-worker, Ashton Irwin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chemical Reactions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blimps](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blimps/gifts).



> I came up with this idea last summer and kept saying that I would write it, except I never actually did... until now! Thanks for being patient with me lol anyway I dedicate this one to all of you in the fandom who enjoy power bottom/bottom Ashton. I see you and I love you!!!! I'll be uploading the other two chapters within the next few days, since I'm nearly done with chapter 3.*
> 
> * _Please do not message me repeatedly on tumblr asking when I'll upload the next chapters because it's rather rude and it makes me anxious. Thanks!_
> 
>  **Warnings:** this fic deals with themes such as sexual harassment, particularly in the workforce, and contains the briefest mention of domestic violence.
> 
>  
> 
> **I do not give anyone permission to upload this work anywhere else.**  
> 

* * *

 

* * *

 

 

Up until the age of twenty-three, Luke Hemmings had never considered committing actual murder. But things change—or rather, certain things can change certain people, and Luke found himself thinking that all of his problems would disappear if only a certain _someone_ was buried six feet underground. As each day wore on, he was sure that he’d be the one to do it, too.

Don’t be fooled, though. Luke’s murderous intent had little to do with his job at the restaurant, because first of all, he loved his job. Yes, they did get the occasional patron who wanted to complain about everything and demanded to speak to the manager, most likely hoping to get free appetizers and things like that, but that type of behavior happened at most places. And regardless of those occasional assholes, Luke still loved being a waiter at Le Chatelier’s.

For many years now, Le Chatelier’s had maintained the title of best French restaurant in all of Los Angeles County, which was obviously something to brag about. No one ever asked why it was named after a famous French chemist, probably because there was no real answer. It just sounded cool and _pretentious_ , and most people living in the Los Angeles area were both of those things. So, it worked.

The food itself was kind of expensive and all of the wine was of the highest quality, so they attracted a specific type of crowd. Le Chatelier’s was where celebrities enjoyed a meal from time to time, where certain wealthy people would meet up and discuss business, or where people who spoke French could dine while looking intelligent because they could accurately pronounce the words on the menu. For these reasons, working in a place like this, one had to have a lot of patience.

Luke had tons of patience, okay. He really did. He could deal with most unpleasant things with a smile on his face, and he could even apologize for things that weren’t his fault at all. He was charming, polite, and he had a very specific set of skills that involved being able to carry several hot plates at a time without ever dropping them.

Truthfully, there was only one thing that made Luke dread going to work every night. There was only one thing that always threatened to ruin his good vibes and make him lose his everlasting patience.

Or rather, one _person_.

His name was Ashton Irwin.

***

It all began about a month ago.

Some nights, after the restaurant had closed and everything had been cleaned to perfection in both the dining areas and the vast kitchen, they still weren’t allowed to go home right away because they had to attend the occasional meeting.

These meetings dealt with the usual things, like what they could do to provide even better service than they already did, new ideas for the menu and whether or not they should remove certain things from it, and which one of them kept leaving water all over the sink in the employee bathroom because it was getting to be a nuance and cleaning up after oneself wasn’t that difficult to do.

Et cetera, et cetera.

Because it was nothing new, Luke had started to zone out. He couldn’t wait to go home to his cat, Lewi, and pass out on the couch while drinking beer and watching Gordon Ramsay’s _Kitchen Nightmares_. He only had one season left to go, and it made him a little sad because it was his favorite cooking show to date. What would he watch after that to keep himself entertained? _Cutthroat Kitchen_ gave Luke anxiety, because he didn’t like seeing someone else get sabotaged and ganged up on by others. Also, he refused to watch any show with Bobby Flay as the host, thank you very much. He had nothing personal against the man, he just really didn’t like him for some reason. Maybe it was the hair.

Luke would have continued standing there and trying to figure out just what it was about Flay that annoyed him so much, if not for his good friend and fellow waiter Calum Hood leaning over to whisper into his ear.

“I bet it’s gonna be Ashton,” he said, and there was an obvious tint of joy in his tone that made Luke raise a brow and look at him.

“Sorry, what?”

“Stop spacing out, _Chris_ ,” Calum teased without looking back at him. “Someone’s gonna be promoted to head server. I’m pretty sure it’s Ashton.”

Luke ignored the unwanted nickname and decided to pay attention once again to whatever the assistant manager, Chuck, was saying.

That’s right. There was to be a promotion tonight. Luke had honestly forgotten, mainly because it wasn’t as if he was a potential candidate or anything. He had only been working at the restaurant for three months so far, but even if he had been part of the team for as long as everyone else, they all seemed to believe that the position would go to none other than Ashton Irwin.

Luke hadn’t known much about Ashton, at the time. He was just another co-worker, one who smiled a lot and seemed to get along with pretty much everyone. They hadn’t spoken much since Luke got the job, but he knew that Ashton was a favorite among practically everyone there, even the chefs. The only person who rivaled him was Rachel, the previous head server. But ever since she’d quit last week in order to move across the country with her fiancé, moving onto better things and opportunities, her position had been up for grabs.

It made sense that Ashton would take her place. He had worked there longer than all of the other servers, he was the one who helped train the newbies and kept them in check, and he was always willing to help out wherever help was needed.

He was also the only omega amongst them, everyone else being beta or alpha.

Not that it mattered.

Or, did it?

Either way, it wasn’t as if Luke was particularly interested. He began to zone out again, only for Chuck to say his name just seconds later, startling Luke out of his temporary daze.

There was an awkward silence for what may have been _years_ as all eyes in the room turned on him. Since Luke hadn’t been paying much attention, he had no idea how he was supposed to be reacting right now and no clue what had just happened. All he knew was that, next to him, Calum murmured _what the fuck?_ as if just as confused about the situation at hand.

When time seemed to move again, Chuck gave Luke a big, formal smile and said, “Congratulations on making head waiter, Luke.”

Then he began to clap. It only took another second for everyone else to follow suit, though it seemed they were only doing so because things would get even more awkward and uncomfortable if they didn’t. A quick glance around the room revealed a few people murmuring in each other’s ears, confusion on their faces as well, while most others just looked indifferent.

Ashton looked ready to destroy anyone who even dared to speak to him.

Luke made the mistake of meeting those hazel eyes, usually so friendly and welcoming, and if looks could kill, then well, he would’ve been dead seconds ago. He didn’t properly breathe again until Ashton looked away at last, but Luke still didn’t feel all that safe being in the other man’s vicinity.

_What the hell?_ He thought, because absolutely none of this made any sense.

_He_ was head waiter? Luke, of all people, was the one who had just been promoted? He would’ve liked to blame it on his own hearing, but the death glare from Ashton and the looks of surprise on the faces of everyone else made it real enough.

Next thing Luke knew, Chuck was briefly reminding them of the changes that were to be made and then they were dismissed. The room was quickly cleared out, everyone eager to get home and dive into bed. Despite the blatant awkwardness from just minutes before, some of them gave Luke additional congrats on the way out, saying “way to go, Chris!” and “nice one, Chris!” while Luke did his best to smile politely and thank them.

He was still too much in shock to complain about the unwanted nickname, which all began when everyone learned that he was from Australia. Because he just so happened to also have blonde hair, blue eyes, and the last name Hemmings, everyone began to associate him with actor Chris Hemsworth. Hence the nickname, Chris. It was both annoying and flattering, considering how good-looking and fit the guy was. Luke was a noodle in comparison. 

It didn’t take long for the room to empty out, and Luke stood there just long enough to see Ashton approach Chuck like a ferocious lion ready to pick a fight. Not wanting to get involved in _that_ , Luke eventually made for the exit.

***

“So, that was one hell of a plot twist.”

They stood outside of the restaurant just a few minutes later, watching as the last of their co-workers left the parking lot. It was unusually chilly that night, but that was only partially the reason that Michael Clifford stood pressed up against Calum’s back, his chin on his mate’s shoulder and his hands shoved in his pockets, a look of indifference on his face. In contrast, Calum stood with his arms crossed over his chest and a quizzical expression gracing his features. Luke could tell that he was leaning back against Michael, like it was as natural as anything.

Luke had no one to lean into or lean back against, but he didn’t really mind.

“Yeah…” Calum eventually said in response to Michael’s comment. “Doesn’t make any sense, though. I mean, if anyone should’ve been picked for head waiter, it should’ve been Ashton. Literally everyone thought so, ‘cause he deserved it.” He paused and looked up at Luke, then added with a sheepish grin, “No offense to you, obviously.”

“None taken,” Luke replied, shrugging. “And hey, I’m just as surprised as everyone else. Like, I’ve only been working here for three months, so…”

“ _So_ , you should be bragging right now!” Michael finished for him, his indifference suddenly replaced by excitement. “Three months and you’ve already been promoted? Shit, that could be a new record. And you know what? We should celebrate! Wanna do that? We’re doing that. We’re hitting up the nearest club and getting you nice and drunk. No exceptions.”

“Actually… maybe one exception,” Calum butted in, yawning after he spoke. “I’m tired as hell and I’d like to go home and take a long shower so I’ll stop smelling like French cuisine.”

All at once, Michael deflated. “Oh. Sorry, Luke. Looks like you’ll have to wait ‘til the weekend.”

Luke couldn’t help rolling his eyes at just how quickly Michael gave up for Calum’s sake, but he smiled and muttered a “thank you” to Calum because, if he was being honest, he’d very much like to pass out soon, too. Especially after what had just happened. He’d have to think more about it in the morning.

Since there wasn’t much else to say on the matter, Michael stepped from behind Calum and wrapped an arm around his shoulders to lead him over to where their car was waiting for them. Upon noticing that Luke hadn’t moved to follow them to his own car parked beside theirs, Michael looked back over his shoulder.

“Coming?”

Luke considered it for a second, but ultimately shook his head.

“Nah, you go ahead. I, uh, need to talk to Ashton for a sec.”

The way Michael’s brows furrowed told him that that probably wasn’t his greatest idea and that he’d most likely just make things worse, but he decided not to vocalize those thoughts. Instead, Michael wished him the best of luck and pulled Calum a bit closer to him as they walked away.

It took longer than necessary for Ashton to finally emerge from the restaurant. Luke imagined that he must’ve had _a lot_ to say to Chuck, and probably a lot to say to the actual manager, François, as well. But whatever it was that kept him for a while, he eventually appeared at the door looking exhausted and defeated instead of enraged. Luke wasn’t sure if that should be a good thing or a bad thing, but he didn’t hesitate when he called out to the other man.

“Hey, Ashton?”

Nervousness suddenly swelled up inside of Luke’s stomach when Ashton actually stopped and turned to face him, and it became apparent that he hadn’t noticed Luke standing there until now. And since there wasn’t any logical reason to be nervous at all, Luke cleared his throat and pushed himself to say what he’d wanted to say.

“Um, about what happened earlier…” He trailed off and waited to see how Ashton would react, but it quickly became clear that he wouldn’t react at all, so Luke continued. “Well, I hope that there isn’t any hard feelings between us?”

It surprised him when Ashton simply replied in a neutral tone, “Why would there be?”

And because Luke had no way of knowing how this conversation would go, it took him a moment longer to respond to that.

“Oh, it’s just—you know, I really think _you_ should’ve been the one to get that promotion? Everyone did. So, it was really surprising when… yeah.”

_Smooth_ , _Hemmings. So smooth_. Luke mentally cursed himself.

Fortunately, Ashton acknowledged those words with a half-smile that was more or less unreadable, but at least he didn’t appear to be seething with anger. As far as Luke was concerned, that was a whole lot better than nothing.

“No worries,” he said again in that neutral tone. “And congratulations, by the way.”

Ashton turned away from him and continued walking before Luke could say anything else to embarrass himself, and he supposed that that was a very good thing.

But of course he would learn soon enough that he’d been wrong.

***

It took approximately two weeks for Luke to come to three conclusions.

The first was that he was pretty certain Ashton hated his fucking guts. The second was that, well, he was starting to reciprocate those intense feelings, whether he wanted to or not. And, lastly, working with Ashton whilst they continued hating each other was starting to become impossible.

To be fair, none of this was Luke’s fault, okay, it really wasn’t. After his brief training was over and he was officially declared head waiter, Ashton was the one who began pretending as if Luke didn’t exist. He never made eye contact with him, never spoke to him, and acted as if Luke wasn’t standing right there at the beginning of every night when he assigned sections to everyone else. Luke knew that Ashton _listened_ , because he did as he was told and he did it very well—but he clearly didn’t enjoy taking orders from someone like Luke. That much was true.

Well, Luke was fine with that. Ashton didn’t have to _like_ Luke, and besides, rarely did a person genuinely like _all_ of their co-workers. So Luke wasn’t bothered by the fact that Ashton obviously didn’t adore him the way that everyone seemed to adore _Ashton_. No, what bothered Luke was that Ashton went out of his way to make sure that Luke _knew_ he wasn’t favored.

For instance, part of Luke’s job now included walking around the dining room every once in a while to make sure that the guests were happy and that they were being well treated by their servers. It was standard procedure, nothing more. However, whenever he went to one of _Ashton’s_ tables, Ashton would sometimes materialize out of nowhere with a deadly smile on his face and a passive-aggressive tone as he warned:

 “ _I’m_ their waiter. _I’ll_ serve them.”

Seriously? All that Luke did was get them some extra napkins! Because they _asked_ _him_ for it as he was walking by!

That wasn’t the worst of it, either, because it definitely got worse as each night went by. Sometimes when Luke spoke to everyone as a group, he’d catch Ashton rolling his eyes or making some snide comment under his breath. The one time that Luke got fed up and tried calling him out by asking if he had any input, Ashton proceeded to make him look incompetent by coming up with an idea much better than Luke’s original plan.

Consequently, Luke made sure to never ask him for input ever again.

This type of treatment might’ve been bearable if not for the fact that everyone else still saw Ashton as a saint, as someone who did no wrong and always put others first. Even Michael and Calum, who Luke had known since moving to L.A., saw Ashton as someone who would give another person the shirt off his back and the shoes off his feet, if they needed it. That most likely had to do with the fact that he _was_ that type of person, but only when it came to everyone else.

Everyone except Luke.

It was insanely childish. Luke could understand being jealous and disappointed that a newbie got the position that Ashton was practically promised, but all of this rude behavior seemed to take it too far. The only reason that Luke didn’t complain to the manager was because he stubbornly believed that he could fix this himself, either by changing Ashton‘s mind about him or by defeating Ashton once and for all.

It would probably have to be the latter, because Ashton was just as stubborn, if not more.

***

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Finally,” Michael said, sighing with relief. But he wasn’t talking about Luke’s thirst for blood. He was referring to the extra-large pepperoni pizza that Luke was balancing in one hand, and Michael was clearly eager to take it from him.

Luke shut the apartment door behind him and followed Michael into the living room, where Calum lay sprawled across the couch until he saw food and the case of beers that Luke was carrying in his other hand. He immediately perked up at the sight, and moved some of the magazines and video games out of the way so that Michael could set the pizza down onto the coffee table, which he did so with the grandeur of someone carrying a most prized possession.

Honestly, the most ironic thing about his friends had to be that Michael, a young and talented chef working at a high-quality restaurant, preferred eating things like pizza and Chinese take-out at home despite having the skills to fix up something nice. But maybe that was the entire point; he spent most of his days cooking at the restaurant and liked the option of not having to cook when he wasn’t working.

“You look peachy,” Calum said as he grabbed the nearest slice before settling back against the couch again. His sarcastic comment was obviously directed at Luke, who was scowling as if he’d been robbed.

“Ashton’s a dick,” he grumbled. “He—”

“Pizza first!” Michael interrupted, wagging a finger in Luke’s face until he swatted it away. “Gossip second.”

Despite how badly he wanted to go off on a tangent, Luke obeyed simply because it was their place and he was a guest. Michael plopped down on the couch and lifted his legs so that they were spread across Calum’s lap, who either didn’t notice or didn’t care. The only space left to sit was on the other side of Calum, but since Luke would rather not have Michael’s feet in his lap while he ate pizza, he decided that the space on the floor in front of the couch would be his best bet.

One of the best things about being friends with Michael and Calum was that they gave Luke permission to come over and hang out at their place whenever he felt like it, as long as he brought a pizza with him as compensation. That was why he was there now, even though it was soon to be midnight and they could’ve just gone to bed right after working. But they hadn’t, because it was one of those nights where Luke needed to come over and rant, and he loved them for always listening.

“’Kay, so what’d Ashton do this time?” Michael asked around a mouthful of pizza.

Luke was all too glad to answer that question.

“I hate him. You wanna know what he did? I’ll tell you what he did. Sometime tonight I went over to Harry and asked if I could have any of the leftover éclairs, just like I usually do, because the bakery _always_ has leftovers, right? He says sure, he’ll set some aside for me as soon as he gets the chance. Simple, right? Wrong! As soon as we finished cleaning everything, _Ashton_ had the nerve to go over and ask for those same éclairs, and guess what? Harry fucking _forgot_ that I asked first, and he just gave them to him! And you know what else? I happen to know that Ashton never asks for the leftovers, but he was nearby when I asked for them and so he did this on purpose. Because he’s a dick. And I hate him.”

Luke only realized how petty and immature all of that sounded once it came out of his mouth, but he was too angry and annoyed to really care. What mattered was that Ashton was the devil, he had it out for Luke and if Luke didn’t do something first, all hell would break loose.

“Wow,” Michael finally replied with feigned interest. “I can’t believe he took the last éclairs. How cruel. Did he take your juice box, too?”

Recognizing when he was being teased, Luke promptly flipped Michael off, but his friend only laughed until he almost choked on a pepperoni. It did nothing to lift Luke’s mood or relieve the tension from his shoulders, so he remained annoyed while chewing on a piece of crust.

Calum tried to reassure him by saying, “What Michael really means is that we’re sorry he’s being mean to you, Luke. What d’you plan to do about it?”

“Honestly? At this point, I might just have to get rid of him.” Luke leaned forward to grab another slice but decided against it, since even thinking about Ashton had a way of ruining his appetite. Sighing, he tilted his head back until he could see Calum’s face. “Help me hide the body?”

Calum snorted at the suggestion. “I don’t know, prison’s no fun.”

“We could get away with it, though. I’ve seen both seasons of _How to Get Away with Murder_.”

“ _Pffft_ , as if that’s entirely accurate,” Michael said. “Besides, if there’s anyone we should get rid of, it’s Steve. I don’t care if he is a genius in the kitchen, he’s always late and he smells like cheese.”

“You guys suck,” Luke groaned in frustration. “You’re supposed to be on my side, remember?”

Despite being disappointed in his friends, Luke didn’t swat Calum’s hand away when he reached down to pat him on the head.

“We are, though. I think. Aren’t we, Mike?”

Michael exhaled a deep sigh before speaking. “Look, all I’m saying is that there’s two sides of a coin, yeah? And sometimes you gotta look at both sides before you decide that, yep, this is definitely a coin worth spending! Or, this coin is complete shit! You know?”

Luke gave his brain a few seconds to process all of that before he shook his head.

“Okay, I literally understood none of that. Try again?”

“Man, that was a damn good metaphor and you know it,” Michael grumbled irritably, but then he sighed again and translated it into English. “I’m just saying that you should try to get to know Ashton before murdering him, okay? Be the bigger person, clear up the misunderstanding, and then fuck his brains out or something. I don’t know.”

The latter part of that statement caused Luke to choke on his beer just as he was taking a sip of it, and if not for the fact that he was actually dying for a few seconds there, he would have gotten revenge for the fact that his friends were now laughing at him. Luke hated that he could feel his cheeks going red.

“What the—okay, can you please explain why the hell I would ever want to do that? Like, _ever_?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. But for a guy who claims to hate Ashton’s guts, you sure do love talking about him all the time,” Calum said innocently, deciding to join in on the teasing.

When Luke failed to create a comeback to that fast enough, Michael teased him even further by saying that he should give Ashton a call and have him come over right then and there, just so that they could solve this nonsense once and for all. Luke may or may not have overreacted a little when he attempted to take away Michael’s phone, thinking that he was being serious.

After making his friends promise that they’d never actually do anything like that, _ever_ , Luke grabbed one of the controllers and demanded to be played against in FIFA so that he could kick their asses. Or get his own ass kicked. Either way, it was better than thinking about the implication that he actually _liked_ Ashton and was attracted to him.

Luke would much rather burn alive before letting that ever happen.

***

Holidays at Le Chatelier’s were the worst.

For one thing, it meant that most people in the city thought that it would be a great idea to go out for dinner, without realizing that everyone else had the exact same idea and therefore most restaurants were jam packed. Le Chatelier’s was no exception, even if it was primarily occupied by the affluent. They had a right to go out, too, and so they did.

Another thing was that it meant Luke had to have twice as much patience as usual. They all did, otherwise none of this would’ve ended well by the time that they were supposed to close. As a result, the ever expanding crowd kept them on their toes as they tried their best to meet the demands, and what made it that much more difficult was the fact that two waiters were missing. Just before opening time, they’d called in sick, one after the other, and everyone guessed that they’d given whatever illness they had to each other.

Luke didn’t care about who was fucking who, nor did he care about the general gossip and rumors among the staff. All that mattered was that _he_ was the one who had to figure out how to deal with the lack of help and what they were going to do to satisfy the crowd waiting to be served.

It was bad enough that they were down two waiters, but on top of that, Chuck wasn’t much help, either. Instead of going around and making sure that people were satisfied, he always _coincidentally_ disappeared as soon as things became tough. By now, Luke had been working at Le Chatelier’s long enough to know that the guy became unusually squeamish whenever they had to deal with a huge crowd, so off he went to hide somewhere, leaving Luke to deal with the rest.

For the first part of the night, Luke thought that he was able to handle it all on his own. That is, until a party of ten came in, who just so happened to be the worst type of group; loud, arrogant, and demanding to be seated despite not having reservations beforehand. Somehow, Luke managed to keep a smile on his face and politeness in his tone as he showed them to their seats. He had decided to place them in Ashley’s section, because she was quite possibly the only one who could deal with them without ripping her hair out.

Unsurprisingly, everything went to shit not even an hour later.

“Bad news,” was the first thing that Calum said as he slid next to Luke, busying his hands with refilling some drinks.

Luke let out a deep sigh. He really, really wanted to go home.

“Alright. What’s the matter now?”

“Well… Andy’s sick in the bathroom,” he said in a way that he hoped would lessen the impact.

It did not.

Luke turned to him in disbelief. “You gotta be kidding me. What the hell happened?”

“Food poisoning?” Calum guessed. “Apparently he went out yesterday with his family. They ate at some new place downtown, now they’re all sick. He came in tonight because he thought that he wasn’t affected by it, but now…”

Luke had to let out another sigh to keep himself from imploding. He knew already that this wasn’t going to be easy.

“Okay, okay. He’s gotta take the rest of the night off, then. There’s no way around it.”

Calum nodded in understanding. “What about his tables? I could try to cover them, but… shit, we’re down three waiters now, aren’t we?”

Before Luke could confirm that that was exactly the case, Ashley came up beside them wearing an expression that looked as if she was ready to kill someone. At this point, Luke wouldn’t blame her if she did, and he’d probably end up helping out.

“That’s it. If the party of ten doesn’t leave within the next ten minutes, I’m setting their table on fire,” she announced with a smile too wide to be anything but deadly.

Calum gave her a sympathetic look. “Sheesh. Are they really that terrible?”

“Worse,” she insisted.

“Have they gotten their meals yet?” Luke asked. He couldn’t see the table from where they stood.

“We _just_ gave it to them. Like, five minutes ago. I even went back to the kitchen to help with plating the last ones. The chefs are having a ball.”

Her voice was laced with sarcasm, meaning that things were probably even more chaotic in the kitchen. Luke could just picture Michael furiously cursing under his breath as he decorated a plate with his nimble fingers, while head chef John Feldmann yelled at everyone to hurry the fuck up. As much as Luke thought that John was a pretty swell guy, he was thankful that he only had to deal with passive aggressive customers tonight.

Suddenly, there was a crash.

It was silent for a moment as every head turned in the direction of the loud sound, and another long, defeated sigh was already escaping Luke as he saw that Oliver had dropped a plate. An empty plate from the looks of it, thank goodness—but there was still broken shards on the floor in every direction. A nearby busboy stopped what he was doing to go and retrieve a broom and dustpan, only to nearly bump into another waiter carrying several plates full of hot food.

They weren’t going to survive this night. That much was obvious.

Both Calum and Ashley turned back to Luke.

“What do we do about the extra tables?” Calum asked.

“Do we still get to go on our breaks?” Ashley questioned at the same time.

Luke seriously wanted to scream. Just what were his managers _thinking_ , promoting him to head waiter when he clearly wasn’t ready to deal with this type of thing? Luke had worked in restaurants before, yes, but he’d never had this much responsibility. He’d never been the one to tell others what to do, the one who everyone expected to solve their problems. It was getting to be too much for him to handle, and the only person that they could’ve called and asked them to work on their day off just so happened to be out of town.

In other words, there was nothing that he could do to possibly fix _any_ of this—

“We’ll have to divide the sections.”

The three of them quickly looked up to find that Ashton had joined them, and where he’d been before now, Luke had no idea. They weren’t given any time to really think about his sudden appearance, because Ashton began devising a plan and they kept their mouths shut in order to listen.

“Ashley, I’ll help out with your section until the party of ten leaves. In the meantime, you can take half of Andy’s section while Calum takes the other half. Luke will help out with my section. It’s getting late now, so the flow of newcomers has slowed down enough for you to leave your post at the front. Think you can handle that?”

Because that last bit was addressed to Luke and Ashton was _actually_ looking at him for once, Luke nodded dumbly. He didn’t really catch what Ashton said after that, because part of him was in shock from the knowledge that Ashton was helping him out when he didn’t have to. Coming up with solutions and giving orders was _Luke’s_ job, not Ashton’s. And yet, Ashton was much better at doing it.

Instead of feeling ashamed or envious, Luke just felt… _relieved_.

Seconds later, Calum and Ashley set off to do as they were told, while Luke followed Ashton to the section that he was responsible for and began to help.

For the very first time that night, things began to go as smoothly as they should’ve gone from the very beginning. Now that the rush of the evening had finally died down, meals were being delivered to tables at a faster rate and the customers were feeling satisfied. They left larger tips, complained less, and asked Luke to send their compliments to the chefs. Luke did so with a bright smile on his face.

At about an hour before closing, Luke seated a group of alphas at a table in Ashton’s section, where he was still helping out at. By now, with people leaving at a much higher rate than they were arriving, there probably wasn’t any further need of Luke’s help. But he still helped out anyway, because as much as he didn’t want to admit it, he and Ashton made a pretty great team.

Both of them had that type of charm that made customers comfortable with them. They were easy to talk to, had good memory, and didn’t take forever to complete simple requests. When they had to deliver food to the tables, they moved around each other like a couple of dancers, easily dodging chairs and the occasional person who wasn’t paying attention to where they were walking.

It was easy, maybe even a little fun at some point, and Luke quickly decided that he preferred _this_ Ashton over the one who acted like a complete jerk. This stalemate of theirs probably wouldn’t last for long, but Luke would enjoy it while it did.

However, something unpleasant happened while Luke was tending to a table. Somehow he was able to sense a change in the atmosphere when Ashton walked up to the table behind him, where the four alphas were seated. They’d already been given their drinks, Luke made sure of that since Ashton was busy at the time, and now he came over to take their orders.

One of them gave a low whistle when Ashton approached, and then he said something in French to the rest of his company that had them laughing. But no one was more surprised than Luke was, when Ashton replied to the man in the same language.

Now, being fluent in French wasn’t actually a requirement when it came to working at Le Chatelier’s, since only a few of them actually _were_ fluent. Luke himself knew the bare minimum, and that came from pronouncing the items on the menu and greeting French-speaking guests. He’d known that Ashton was one of the few staff members who were fluent in the language, but this happened to be the first time that he actually got to hear the words pour from Ashton’s lips. It was so smooth that Luke felt a tingle down his spine.

“You speak French, then?” the man asked, and he voice revealed that he was amused.

“I do. Fluently,” Ashton confirmed, but there was a subtle strain to his usually polite tone that Luke couldn’t help noticing. “So, what can I get for you gentlemen this evening? Have you had a chance to look at the menu?”

“Hmm, I don’t know,” the man said. “I think I’d much rather be looking at you.”

The other men at the table laughed once more, and suddenly Luke knew exactly what was going on. He furrowed his brows for a moment, but tried not to let it distract him from what he was supposed to be doing, which was waiting for his own table to finish choosing the desserts that they wanted.

“That was a terrible line,” said another man. “Don’t pay attention to this one, he’s like a wild dog in heat.”

His latter statement must’ve been directed at Ashton, who laughed softly but in a way that made it obvious he was uncomfortable. Or, maybe it was only obvious to Luke, since none of the alphas seemed to really care that they were being rude and inappropriate.

“Well, I’m afraid I’m not on the menu,” Ashton replied with slightly more ease.

“That is a shame,” the first man said. Then he began to speak in French again, and the only reason that Luke understood it this time was because it was an entrée from the menu.

With his own tasks to complete, Luke headed back to the kitchen to put in the orders that he’d just taken. Ashton wasn’t that far behind him, and just before they passed each other, Luke gently grabbed him by the arm to get his attention. It probably wasn’t his greatest idea, because Ashton stared down at their point of contact until Luke withdrew him hand as if he’d been burned.

“What?”

“Um.” Luke felt his ears grow hot. “Are you… Are you okay? Those men—I mean. I can take over for you, if you want?”

He felt unreasonably hot as they continued to stand there for a moment, silent while Ashton stared at him with an undecipherable expression on his face. It was unsettling, how unintentionally intimidating he could be sometimes. Or, maybe the intent was there all along.

Finally, Ashton merely shook his head and said, “No, it’s fine. I can deal with it myself.”

Then he was gone.

Things only seemed to get worse, though. Each time that Ashton went to that particular table, he walked away looking tense and uncomfortable and just… _wrong_. And it was completely wrong, Luke knew—it was sexual harassment, to be exact. What made it strange was that Luke had never witnessed it in person before, or maybe he had but he wasn’t paying attention the other times.

To be honest, it made Luke angry. He knew that those men were only treating Ashton like this because he was an omega. They’d been nothing but respectful during the short few minutes that Luke had served them, so this had to be the reason for their sudden rudeness and entitlement. But what confused him was that, when he had stopped Ashton a second time and advised him to report it to the manager, Ashton had given him the same response as before:

_“I can deal with it myself.”_

Only with more aggression behind it that time. All that it did was make Luke angrier, because people like that shouldn’t have been allowed to get away with this sort of thing. Ashton may have been an asshole, but he didn’t deserve the nasty things that those men said to him. He didn’t deserve the sultry looks, the way that their eyes scanned his body like he was a piece of meat, and the implications behind everything that they said to him. Luke could only imagine what they were saying when Ashton was out of earshot.

And so after the fifth time that Ashton left their table, looking as if he was just barely holding it together, Luke couldn’t take it anymore.

It was time to take matters into his own hands.

With a big pitcher of water in his hand, Luke marched right over to the table of crude alphas, wearing his biggest smile and a glint of mischief in his eyes. He noted that they looked slightly disappointed to see that it wasn’t Ashton approaching them, but they suspected nothing of his intentions.

“May I offer some wa—”

Luke promptly tripped over his own two feet.

At least, he _pretended_ to.

The pitcher of water went flying, its target the four men sitting at the table. Perhaps the greatest part was that when the water finally landed, none of them were spared. Luke heard them gasp in shock, and two of the men cursed in French. Luke couldn’t help but smirk, because he _definitely_ knew what those words meant.

“Oh goodness, I am _so_ sorry!” he said, already to his feet again. He remained dry, but the four men were soaked. “I am so terribly sorry, _monsieur_. Really, I am. Oh no! Is that your phone?”

Sure enough, there had been two phones resting on the table during the collision. One of them only had a couple drops of water on it, while the other one definitely had no chance of making it out alive. That phone belonged to the man who had whistled at Ashton, and Luke felt utterly pleased.

The man, on the other hand, scowled up at him in displeasure and thinly veiled rage.

“That _was_ my phone,” he corrected, and Luke had to try really hard not to laugh at his thick accent suddenly slipping through.

“Oh no,” Luke repeated, feigning guilt and concern. “This is all my fault, and I can’t apologize enough. But hey, karma sure is a bitch, isn’t it?”

If the men weren’t angry before, they certainly were now that Luke made it clear that this was no accident. Then, they really had no idea what to do. If they were to try to fight him, Luke had every right to defend himself, and everyone would see who threw the first punch. They seemed to realize this, too, because they simply sat there in both shock and rage until one of them blurted out:

“I demand to speak to the manager, this instance!”

“Sure thing!” Luke replied, a little too cheerfully. “And while you’re at it, would you also like to let him know that you were repeatedly harassing my co-worker for his phone number just a minute ago?”

That accusation instantly made the man pause, but Luke continued.

“What was it that you said again? Something about his… legs? I do apologize, my French really isn’t the greatest. Maybe you could repeat it to the manager yourself, but just in case he doesn’t believe you, I’m sure I’d be able to convince the rest of the staff to back you up.”

The look on the man’s face told Luke that he’d already won. Within seconds, all four of them were counting out bills to leave on the table, even though Luke had kindly offered to bring them the check so they’d know just how much they owed. They seemed in a rush, though, so he didn’t complain about the large tip they’d left before ducking out of the restaurant.

Only then did Luke notice the attention that they’d received from everyone else nearby, who was close enough to see the “accident” and hear the exchange of words between them. But now that the entertainment had left, they quickly went back to minding their own business.

All except Ashton, who was currently staring at Luke with wide eyes and his mouth gaping open. He looked both horrified and awestruck, as if he wasn’t sure what he should’ve been feeling at that moment, but Luke’s ego decided to interpret it as the latter.

Feeling particularly satisfied with himself, Luke approached Ashton with a friendly smile.

“You’re welcome,” he said, since Ashton probably wouldn’t have thanked him first.

At first, Ashton could only blink at him before finding the right words.

“You… but—?”

Since those obviously weren’t the _right_ words, Luke decided to help him out.

“You know, most people would’ve said ‘thank you’ in this situation. How do you translate that to French? _Merci…_?”

All of a sudden, Ashton was scowling at him.

“Goddammit, Luke— _why_ did you do that? I told you that I could handle it myself!”

Luke was unimpressed. “Seriously? You’ve gotta be joking now, because as far as I could tell, you were _dying_ for them to leave. Am I wrong?”

Ashton looked as if he was about to argue just for argument’s sake, but he seemed to change his mind at the last second. He said nothing else as he went over to the table, collected the money that the men had left there, and then walked away without looking back. It was so typically _Ashton_ that Luke didn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes. Talk about ungrateful!

Honestly? He lacked the patience to care anymore.

***

Relief settled deep within Luke’s bones by the time that the night was over. He could tell that everyone else felt the same, because while they’d usually make small conversation during their cleanup routine, no one spoke at all this time. The peace and quiet was welcomed, though. Luke knew that as soon as he got home, he was going to hide beneath the covers on his bed for the next three years.

As usual, Chuck the Coward decided to resurface at about this time to tell them all that they’d done a swell job, no thanks to him. He was lucky that everyone lacked the energy to call him out on his bullshit, but in reality, no one ever did. Maybe now that Luke was head waiter, he’d have the courage to do so without worrying about the possible consequences.

In the meantime, Luke made a detour to the bathroom just as everyone else began to leave for the night. He wasn’t thinking of anything in particular, except maybe how much he needed a nice cuddle from Lewi, so when he opened the door and entered the recently cleaned bathroom, it took him a moment to realize that he wasn’t alone.

“Um. Hello?”

The odd sounds that he’d been hearing instantly stopped, making Luke even more suspicious. Then, there was the sound of a toilet flushing followed by one of the stall doors unlocking, and that’s when Ashton emerged from the stall, much to Luke’s surprise.

“Oh,” he said, because he really hadn’t expected this.

Ashton didn’t even acknowledge him. He simply walked over to the sink and began to wash his hands, though there was something about his movements that made them a little self-conscious, like he knew that Luke was watching him and there was something that he didn’t want Luke to find out.

It was a little too late for that, however. From where he stood, Luke could see Ashton’s reflection in the mirror, but more importantly, he could see that Ashton had been crying just a moment ago. That would explain the odd sound that Luke heard when he first walked in.

_Wait a minute_ , Luke thought.

Ashton had been _crying_? Not only that, but crying alone in the _bathroom_? It seemed too bizarre to be true, too uncharacteristic for someone as fierce and intimidating as Ashton. Most of all, it just didn’t seem realistic, and maybe that was Luke’s fault. He had dehumanized Ashton so much that the thought of him showing human emotions—other than anger and contempt—was just a bit unusual.

In fact, it made Luke uncomfortable. But even more than that, he was curious.

Luke casually walked over to the sink but made sure not to move too quickly, as if Ashton was a wild animal and any sudden movements had the power to scare him off for good. He seemed to take notice of what Luke was trying to do, because he stopped pretending to be washing his hands and looked at Luke’s reflection as it appeared in the mirror.

“What is it?” he asked, but his voice betrayed his façade when it cracked. He instantly blushed, cleared his throat, and stared down at the sink.

Clearly, he was still upset. Maybe he didn’t want Luke all up in his personal space, either, so Luke stopped a few feet away and decided to get to the point.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re crying.”

Ashton must not have anticipated that Luke would be so blunt about it, because that made him pause for several seconds until he let out a deep, tired sigh. His entire body seemed to sigh with him, looking far less tense and much more exhausted than before.

Just yesterday, the mental image of Ashton crying and looking pathetic might have brought Luke a sadistic sense of joy, but seeing it in person, Luke felt nothing of the sort. If anything, there was a feeling of sympathy buried somewhere within his chest.

“Yes, I am crying. Or, I _was_ ,” Ashton admitted quietly. Then, unexpectedly, he chuckled. “I’m a Cancer. We do that sometimes.”

Luke couldn’t bring himself to laugh along.

“Was it because of those men from earlier?”

Ashton ended up sighing again, only this time he turned away from the mirror to actually face Luke. For some reason, being stared down by him now wasn’t nearly as scary as it was before, maybe because there was less malice in his eyes or because Luke had seen him crying, one of the most human emotions that a person could possibly show. Whatever it was, Luke no longer felt the need to look away to avoid being scorched.

“What do you want, Luke?” he finally asked, but then shook his head and closed his eyes for a second. “I mean, why does it matter to you?”

Luke thought for a moment before shrugging.

“Because they were dicks,” he answered easily. “Like, huge dicks. And you didn’t deserve to have to go through that, even though sometimes you can be a huge dick, too.”

He didn’t anticipate that Ashton would actually laugh at that. It was a small laugh, barely there, but it was a laugh nonetheless. All of a sudden, Luke felt very accomplished for being the cause of it, because never had he imagined that he could make Ashton do _anything_ except passionately hate his guts.

“I get it, though,” Luke continued. “I understand how shitty it can be sometimes, and—”

“No, you don’t,” Ashton interrupted, though he did so gently. “You don’t understand and you never will, because you’re not an omega. We don’t share the same experiences, and that’s just how it is.”

Not sure what to say and fearing that he’d just end up offending Ashton, Luke nodded and debated on his next reply. Luckily he wasn’t given time to think of one, since Ashton apparently hadn’t finished with whatever else he had to say.

“You’d think I was used to it by now. I mean, I’ve had to deal with this kind of crap since I was a teenager, but… doesn’t make it any easier, especially knowing I’m just gonna keep dealing with those types of people for the rest of my life.” He paused to let out another sigh. “Can’t complain, though. Could be worse, right?”

Now he appeared to be finished, but Luke still had no idea what to say. Perhaps he didn’t need to say anything, because Ashton pushed himself away from the sink and began walking towards the door. Luke made sure to step out of the way, but instead of walking right by him, Ashton briefly stopped in front of him and waited until Luke met his eyes before speaking.

“Thank you, by the way. For earlier? It was stupid of you to risk your job like that, but… thanks anyway.”

Unable to think of a smart remark, Luke nodded once again and watched as Ashton left the bathroom.

***

Michael and Calum were already gone by the time that Luke left the restaurant. As a matter of fact, he was the last one to leave aside from the managers, so he didn’t make any further detours on the way to where he BMW was still parked by itself. He made sure to crank the heater up as soon as he got the car started, and though it was against the law, he made an illegal U-turn as he left the parking lot because it was the fastest route to his apartment.

_Home sweet home, here I come._

Luke had been driving for about sixty seconds before he recognized a very familiar figure traveling along the sidewalk. It took three more seconds for him to catch up to them, and only half a second for him to see that it was none other than Ashton Irwin.

Since there currently wasn’t anyone driving behind him, Luke pulled over to the side and matched his driving to the same pace as Ashton’s walking. That seemed to instantly get Ashton’s attention, and Luke rolled down the passenger window to call out to him.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

Ashton’s face was half hidden by the hood of his jacket and the lack of sufficient streetlamps, but Luke could see that he was wearing a pair of glasses that he never wore while working, and found this detail to be quite interesting.

Unsurprisingly, Ashton frowned.

“Home,” he answered.

“And you plan to just… _walk_ there?”

“Well, I sure as hell can’t _fly_.”

The sarcastic response made Luke begin to regret his decision to stop. He gave Ashton a _look_ , but tried really hard not to smile when Ashton teasingly smirked at him in return.

“My roommate needed the car,” he explained, hugging his arms around his torso just a little tighter. He must have been cold, and the thin leather jacket that he was wearing wasn’t cutting it. “So, I’m walking. My place isn’t too far from here, anyway.”

“Then let me give you a ride.”

Ashton came to a sudden halt, so Luke did the same. He waited patiently for his offer to be accepted, and hoped that Ashton staring at him with wide, surprised eyes every time that he tried to be nice wouldn’t become a habit.

Finally, Ashton spoke. Or rather, shook his head.

“No, it’s—you don’t have to do that, Luke, really. I’ll be fine, it’s just a couple of blocks from here.”

Luke grinned. “That’s perfect, then. It means that I won’t be going out of my way to help you. Seriously, though. Hop on in, I don’t mind.”

“But I meant what I said. I’ll be fine.”

“Jesus, you sure know how to be difficult.” Luke exhaled a sigh and willed himself to have patience. If he was patient, this would work. “Look, Ashton. It’s midnight, and apparently it’s also cold as hell out there, if your chattering teeth means anything. Not only that, but who knows what kind of creeps roam these streets at night. So, I know that you don’t like me and all, but I’m really just trying to help.”

If Ashton took any of that into consideration, he didn’t let it show. Instead, he smiled and gave a salute.

“Goodnight, Luke.”

Then he turned on his heels and began to walk again. Luke shook his head and continued driving next to the stubborn guy. They went on like this for about thirty more seconds until Ashton gave in first, turning towards the vehicle to acknowledge Luke’s existence again. He knocked on the passenger window until Luke rolled it down.

“Oh, hello,” Luke said with his most annoying smile. “What’s up?”

Ashton narrowed his eyes. “Think you can stop following me like some weirdo?”

Luke frowned at those words. “Who, me? Following you? Nonsense, I’m just trying to get home. Can I roll my window back up now? You’re letting out all of the delicious heat.”

The look that Ashton gave him in that moment seriously made Luke want to shrink down in his seat to avoid it, but he couldn’t show weakness. Ashton may have been stubborn and childish at times, but Luke was sure that he could be twice as stubborn and childish.

Maybe.

At last, Ashton gave in.

“Unlock the door,” he said. Or rather, demanded.

Luke gladly did so. He waited until Ashton was sitting comfortably in the passenger seat and buckled up before pulling away from the curb. It brought a smile to his face when Ashton held his hands in front of the air vents, trying to warm up his fingers as fast as he could get them to. The only reason that Luke didn’t say _I told you so_ was because he didn’t know how hard Ashton could punch, nor did he want to find out.

They rode in silence, for the most part. Ashton gave him the directions and Luke followed them without any mishaps. _So far so good_ , he thought, even though Ashton was blatantly avoiding him by staring out of the passenger window the entire time. If it had been yesterday, Ashton probably would have preferred getting run over by a bus than sitting in a car with Luke for five minutes. So really, this was progress.

Eventually they arrived outside of an average looking apartment complex with the stucco exterior and everything. Ashton muttered “thanks for the ride” in a way that was probably more sincere than he meant for it to be, and it also happened to be the second time that Ashton had thanked him that night.

Luke thought it was a miracle. He thought it was a trap.

Most of all, he thought it was nice.

“So,” he said, speaking up just as Ashton grabbed the handle to the door.

Ashton let go of the handle and sighed. “Oh boy.”

“What?” Luke questioned, frowning a little. “What do you think I’m gonna say?”

“Nothing.”

“No, not nothing. Tell me.”

“I don’t know,” he said, but then added on with, “maybe that I owe you something now that you’ve been nice to me? Pickin’ fights with alphas and driving me home in the middle of the night, shit like that. And while I do appreciate the kindness, I hope you know that there isn’t some ‘90s teen movie plot developing here.”

“Wait, what? ‘90s teen movie…”

Luke couldn’t help himself anymore, he _had_ to laugh at that one.

While he proceeded to laugh with his forehead resting against the steering wheel, Ashton stared at him in confusion and demanded to know what was so funny. He even resorted to repeatedly poking Luke in his side until he finally paid attention.

“Sorry, sorry,” Luke gasped, and he tried his best not to burst into laughter again. “Just… okay, that was pretty fucking funny. Congratulations, you have a sense of humor that I actually agree with.”

Ashton tilted his head to the side. “Was that an insult or a compliment?”

“Whichever you prefer,” Luke teased. “But in all seriousness, that really wasn’t what I was going to say… and I know that this might be hard for you, but maybe you could try _not_ expecting the worst from me? I swear I’m not that bad of a person.”

There was a brief silence between them as Ashton weighed his words; at least, that’s what Luke assumed he was doing. It was already strange enough that they were sitting next to each other in the same car, but having a civil conversation while sitting together at the _same time_? Now that should’ve been impossible, but apparently it wasn’t. Luke didn’t blame Ashton for not knowing what to say immediately.

“Then… what were you trying to tell me?” he replied at last, and he even made an effort to meet Luke’s eyes.

Luke made sure to appear both non-threatening and sincere before saying: “I think we should come to a truce.”

“A truce?”

“Yeah, as in no more hating each other and whatnot.”

A frown instantly made its way to Ashton’s face.

“What? I never hated you.”

Luke felt like he could have choked on air.

“Hah!” he laughed, though it was a sarcastic laugh to mimic how ridiculous that statement was. “I beg to differ!”

“I’m telling the truth,” Ashton insisted, but he quickly gave up and changed strategy. “Okay, okay. Fine. Is that all that this ‘truce’ entails?”

“I was getting to that, actually. Tonight I realized that we make a pretty kickass team, you and I. Somehow we do, but only when we’re working together instead of trying to one-up each other, you know? So I think that we should try to be like this more often. For the sake of the team. And my sanity, but.”

And so, that was that. Ashton could either take it or leave it, but Luke hoped that it would be the former. He didn’t want to admit it, but working _with_ Ashton instead of against him had made for a rather pleasant experience. So if he could set aside his personal feelings for the other man, then surely Ashton could find it in himself to do the same.

At least, that was what Luke had hoped for.

Eventually, Ashton nodded. “Yeah. Okay. I guess you’re right.”

“I know I am,” Luke replied, just because he couldn’t help himself. “So how about I make you dinner?”

Ashton turned back to him so fast that he nearly got whiplash.

“W-Wait, _what_?”

“Dinner?” Luke clarified as if he hadn’t been heard. “It’s the meal that people usually eat in the evening, around sunset.”

“I know what dinner is, smart ass. I meant… why would you want to make it for me?”

“Well, if we’re gonna try to get along, then we’ll need to get to know each other first, right? And what better way to do that than over dinner? You’ll come to my place and we’ll hang out, just like normal people do.”

Ashton took a long moment to consider it, and Luke didn’t realize how much he wanted him to say yes until it seemed like he might say no.

“Alright.”

Luke tried not to sound too obvious about his happiness. “You’re actually agreeing with me?”

Ashton shrugged and grinned at him. “I mean, I’d be a fool to refuse free food.”

“Then it’s settled.”

“Yep.”

“What day will you be free?”

“We have the same schedule, Luke.”

“Oh. Right.”

Ashton was laughing to himself as he finally opened the door and began to climb out, and Luke sat there amazed at how many strange things had happened in a single night. Of course, the strangest thing was that he made Ashton laugh more than once. It probably wouldn’t ever happen again, but Luke decided to remain optimistic.

Closing the door behind himself, Ashton leaned down to peer at Luke through the window.

“Goodnight,” he said, and it had to be in the softest tone that Luke had ever heard him use before. “For real this time.”

Luke couldn’t think of anything cool or witty to say, so he waved and settled with something standard.

“Sweet dreams, Ashton.”

***

They came to an agreement that Ashton would show up at Luke’s place that Thursday night, since neither of them had to go to work that day. Consequently, Luke spent the majority of his Thursday cleaning up his apartment and making sure that everything was in order. He hadn’t realized just how messy his place was until he kept finding things that he didn’t want Ashton to see, but at least he had Lewi for help.

And by help, he meant that the damned cat sat on top of the Roomba vacuum while the machine did all of the work. Luke eventually stopped what he was doing to coo at his baby boy and take pictures of him, because even though he found it annoying when Lewi sat on things that weren’t made for sitting, he couldn’t deny that it was extremely adorable.

It was 7:30 in the evening when Luke heard a knock at the door from where he stood in the kitchen. He was a bit disappointed that the pizza didn’t get a chance to finish baking before Ashton’s arrival, but Luke could find ways to entertain his guest while they waited. Maybe they would play video games together, or look up stupid shit on YouTube.

Truthfully, Luke had no idea just what the hell they were meant to do. He was welcoming his former arch nemesis into his home and he didn’t want things to be awkward, even though that was probably inevitable.

_Focus, Hemmings!_ He reminded himself, and then he put on his biggest smile and opened the front door.

“Hey,” he began, but the words died in his throat because Ashton Irwin looked _hella_ stunning.

At Le Chatelier’s, they were required to wear fancy white button-downs beneath fancy black vests, a funny bowtie, and plain black pants. Being clean shaven and having a neat haircut was part of the dress code, too, so Luke was already accustomed to what Ashton looked like when he was cleaned up and in formal wear. But what Luke _wasn’t_ accustomed to was Ashton in casual clothing, which was what he was wearing now.

A black V-neck, his leather jacket that Luke had seen him in a few times already, black skinny jeans that hugged his thighs so nicely, and a pair of shiny black boots. Everything was black from head to toe, and somehow it really, really worked. He stood with his hands in his pockets and indifference on his face, but he had to notice Luke’s eyes traveling down his body. He’d have to be blind _not_ to notice.

“Can I come in? Or are we going to eat in the hallway?” he asked with one brow raised.

Of course his usual sarcasm had to ruin the moment. But instead of rolling his eyes and calling Ashton out for being fifteen minutes late, Luke decided to be the mature one and stepped aside to let him into the apartment. He had to remember that patience was key, patience was what would stop him from poisoning Ashton’s drink tonight.

“Here, let me take your jacket,” Luke offered.

Ashton stared at his open hand and looked as if he was about to make this difficult and annoying already, but it was a pleasant surprise when he merely nodded and slipped out of his jacket. Luke made sure to be careful as he hung it on the coat rack behind the door, just in case it happened to be expensive.

“ _Eek! What the hell_ —”

At Ashton’s sudden squeal, Luke spun around to see what had happened, only to find the cutest sight in the world. Lewi had showed up to greet their new guest as well, and he seemed to already approve of Ashton, since he was currently rubbing up against the guy’s leg. On the other hand, Ashton didn’t seem to approve of the cat in return.

“Whoops! Sorry about that. Did he scare you?” Luke knelt down for a moment to scoop Lewi until into his arms, since it was clear that he was making Ashton uncomfortable with the overly affectionate rubbing. It was hilarious, though, so Luke didn’t stop himself from laughing. “This is Lewi! He really likes new people, most of the time.”

Luke kissed the tabby cat on top of his little grey head, and Lewi meowed in response. Ashton wrinkled his nose and took an obvious step back.

“He’s cute, I guess.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “ _Ugh_ , please don’t tell me that you’re one of those annoying cat haters. I mean, how could anyone _possibly_ hate this adorable little face? Look, he’s purring!”

“It’s not that I _hate_ cats, because I don’t,” Ashton corrected him. “I’m just allergic to them. So I’ve never really had the chance to like them, either.”

That had to be the saddest thing that Luke had ever heard. No wonder Ashton could be exceptionally mean sometimes. He was lacking the greatest happiness in the world: a little kitty to warm his heart and brighten up his soul. Luke truly began to pity him.

“Aw, that sucks,” he said, and he meant it. “Not gonna lie, I never really liked cats until this little guy followed me home one day. I don’t know what it was about him, but I just couldn’t resist! Anyway, I’ll put him in the bedroom so he doesn’t make your allergies act up.”

With that promise, Luke carried Lewi into the nearby bedroom and set him on the mattress. He made sure to let the cat know that he was very loved and appreciated, and that Luke was grateful for his sacrifice. Afterwards, he kissed Lewi on the head and left the bedroom, closing the door shut behind him.

Ashton was standing in the space between the living room and the kitchen when Luke came back to him, his eyes almost as wide as Lewi’s as he looked around at everything. Luke felt his cheeks grow a little warm, though he knew that there was nothing out of place. Still, he’d never liked to be judged.

When Ashton was finished absorbing his surroundings, he looked over his shoulder at Luke and grinned.

“So this is what daddy’s money buys you.”

_Oh_. Luke didn’t really know what to think of the fact that Ashton had figured out who he was, or more importantly, who his _father_ was. Luke also wasn’t sure how he should react to that, but since it was clear that Ashton was waiting for some sort of reaction, Luke didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

Thus, he played it cool by smiling back at the other man and shrugging.

“How long have you known?” he asked, genuinely curious to know.

“Since the beginning? I mean, it was kind of obvious.” Ashton lifted his right hand and began counting on his fingers. “Your last name is Hemmings, you’re from Australia, and let’s be real here. How many waiters drive a BMW to work every night? Whether you serve at a five-star restaurant or not, it just doesn’t add up.”

Okay, so he definitely had a point there. Luke didn’t have to like it, though. So instead of admitting that, _yes_ , he was the son of famous chef Andrew Hemmings, who had his own TV show back in Australia and was sort of a celebrity ever since winning a cooking competition in Las Vegas a couple of years back, Luke went for the easy route and played dumb.

“The surname Hemmings isn’t _that_ uncommon, is it?”

Without waiting for an answer, Luke walked into the kitchen to open up the bottle of Beaujolais that he had acquired specifically for this occasion. It should be okay to start with that, because wine was always a great start. Ashton was so light on his feet that Luke wasn’t sure he had followed behind, but then he heard the soft scrape of a stool as Ashton moved it so that he could take a seat at the counter.

“So why aren’t you in Vegas, Luke?” he asked once he was settled, because of course he wasn’t letting this drop. “That’s where your parents live nowadays, right?”

Luke continued to stall as he fussed over the corkscrew. “Two in a row? Hey now, that doesn’t seem fair.”

Ashton shrugged. “Answer the question and I’ll let you ask two when it’s your turn.”

Once the wine had been successfully opened, there was nothing else that Luke could really use as a distraction, not that it was really working, anyway. He quickly came to the conclusion that he should just be honest and tell Ashton what he wanted to know, since the whole point of this dinner was to get to know each other. So, Luke spoke as he poured the wine into two separate glasses.

“Because I wanted to make a name for myself, I guess. Couldn’t really do that from within my father’s shadow.” He paused to bring one of the glasses over to Ashton, who kept his eyes trained on Luke even as he took the first sip. “To tell you the truth, I don’t really know what I’m gonna do yet. I just know that I’m really good at catering? So I’m sticking with that. Maybe I’ll open up my own restaurant someday, or even better, maybe I’ll get hired to work on a cruise ship! That’s definitely on my bucket list.”

Technically that wasn’t all of the truth, but it was most of it. Luke left out the part about how the main reason that he came to California was because he’d gotten bored of Vegas. It should’ve been impossible, but one could only party almost every night for several weeks at a time before they began to yearn for something else. True, Luke went to the occasional party here in Los Angeles when he felt like going out, but these parties were tame and slightly more legal than the ones that went on in Vegas.

And what happened in Vegas, stayed in Vegas.

Luke kept this to himself because Ashton seemed like he would’ve despised the type of person that Luke used to be. Not that he was particularly in favor of who Luke was _now_ , but still. It was better safe than sorry.

“Okay,” Ashton finally said, nodding his head to show that he was satisfied with that answer. “It’s your turn now.”

Luke didn’t waste any time. “How is it that you’re fluent in French? Is that where your family is from?”

“Nah, my ancestors were Irish.” Ashton huffed out a laugh at the look of shock on Luke’s face. “I started learning French when I was fourteen because I wanted to. And since I’m stubborn as hell, as you may already know, I decided not to give up even when I realized that learning another language was pretty damn hard.”

Luke stared at him. “Because you _wanted to_? I’m sorry, but I find that hard to believe.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, no offense, but you’re American. I know I haven’t lived here for that long, but Americans who speak English as a first language usually don’t care about learning anything else.”

Ashton snorted. “ _Pfft_ , and Australians do?”

“I never said we did, just… never mind.”

“Mhm. Whatever you say, Hemmings. So, are you gonna ask your second question, or should I go next?”

“Oh. Um.” Luke honestly hadn’t thought of anything else, so he blurted out the first thing to come to mind. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Really? That’s what you’re going with?” Although Ashton said this, it still took him a moment to think of an answer. “Well, it’s red—no wait, blue. Yeah, definitely blue. Sky blue, I guess. What about you?”

Luke wasn’t sure that he had a favorite color, and if he answered that he liked black because the majority of his clothes were black, Ashton probably would have laughed at him. Maybe it was stupid, but Luke preferred making Ashton laugh at _things_ , not at _him_. That was why when he finally came up with his answer, he made sure to look into Ashton’s eyes as he said it.

“I don’t know, but I think I’m really starting to like hazel.”

It only took a second for Ashton to understand what Luke was referring to, but the joke was a complete and utter failure, because he didn’t laugh like Luke expected him to. Instead, the silly flirtations brought a sudden deep blush to his face, and he broke eye contact to stare down at the glass in front of him.

In the first fifteen minutes of their dinner-not-date, Luke had already miscalculated. But he saw himself as a smart guy, so he knew how to salvage the situation without making things twice as awkward.

It was time for a change of subject.

“So, uh, do you like pizza?” he asked as he walked over to the oven to check on said pizza. “Because that’s what I’m making. I wasn’t sure which toppings you hated, so one side has pepperoni and some veggies while the other side is just plain cheese. I hope that’s okay with you, but I think you’re really gonna like it. Back at home, I’m well-known for the pizzas that I make from scratch.”

Luke knew that he was rambling now, but rambling was better than awkward silence. He just had to keep his hands and his mouth busy—oh, god, what a poor choice of wording. Now he was thinking about sex and thinking about sex was Very Bad. Luke would not think about sex in the presence of his guest. No sir, he wouldn’t.

“Pizza is fine, I don’t think I have any strict preferences when it comes to that,” Ashton replied. He sounded a tad distracted, but Luke didn’t risk looking back over his shoulder to investigate. Well, not until Ashton cleared his throat and said: “So this isn’t really a question, but there’s something that I’m curious about.”

Luke furrowed his brows. “What is it?”

“I hope that you don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t really seem…”

“…Like an alpha?” he guessed, and the look on Ashton’s face told him that he’d guessed correctly. “S’okay, I actually get that a lot. Never really understood it, though… I mean, how is an alpha supposed to be? Uh, you don’t have to answer that.”

A faint smile spread across Ashton’s lips because Luke had accurately guessed what he might’ve had to say about alphas. But he remained silent for the moment, and gestured for Luke to continue with what he had been leading up to.

“I grew up in a house full of alphas,” Luke went on. “Both of my brothers are alphas and so is my mum. Dad’s a beta. Anyway, I’m the youngest so people would always call me ‘baby alpha’, which is kind of funny. But I didn’t present until I was sixteen, so up until then, everyone assumed that I was going be an omega because of my personality.”

“And what did you think?”

“Hm?”

“About those assumptions,” Ashton explained. “What’d you think when everyone told you that you’d probably be an omega?”

“Honestly? I couldn’t have cared less. I was a really late bloomer, so the only thing that mattered to me was that I presented soon. Didn’t care if I’d be an alpha, beta, or an omega. I just wanted to be _something_ , anything other than ‘scentless boy’, which is what they’d begun to call me at school.”

Luke could roll his eyes at the memory because it no longer hurt him. It stopped hurting him a long time ago, in fact, so now whenever he thought of all the bullies that he’d dealt with, Luke felt nothing at all.

He met Ashton’s eyes again and opened his mouth to say something witty and lighten the mood, but he forgot what when he saw the way that Ashton was looking at him now. It was that strange, unreadable expression that Luke recalled seeing a couple of times before. When Ashton didn’t look away first upon being caught staring, Luke got the sense that he was actually lost in his own thoughts and not actually _looking_ at anything.

Luke picked up the corkscrew and tossed it in his direction. Ashton snapped out of his daze and gave Luke a dirty look, which made him laugh.

“It’s my turn, yeah?”

“Oh.” Ashton shook his head. “Yeah, sorry. Go ahead.”

Luke hummed as he thought of what he wanted to ask, though he already had a question in mind, so he went with it.

“What’re you thinking about?”

It seemed to him that the question took Ashton off-guard, which hadn’t been Luke’s original intention. But he was interested in seeing where this would take the conversation; that is, if Ashton decided to tell the truth. He must’ve been considering the same options, since it took him longer than necessary to comply.

Finally, he said: “Do you wanna know why I was so… mean to you before?”

“Um.” Luke had to pause, because now _he_ was the one being taken off-guard. “Because you hated me?”

“No, and I already told you that I’ve never hated you,” Ashton said, sighing.

“Well, you certainly acted like it,” Luke mumbled. He decided to guess again. “Was it because I got the promotion instead of you?”

“Kind of,” Ashton admitted with ease. “But not exactly. If it had been anyone else, I probably would’ve gotten over myself after the first day. Except, it ended up being _you_ , and that made me so angry because, well, you’re an alpha.”

Luke furrowed his brows, lost. “I… don’t think I follow.”

“It’s not that complex, really. It’s just that all my life, I’ve had to deal with being stepped on by alphas, over and over again, and I’ve never stopped having to prove to people that I’m just as worthy as they are. The other night I told you that you’d never understand, and you really won’t, because of the privilege that you have. I mean, we all have privilege, just… some more than others. Basically, it made me so angry that I’ve been busting my ass for the past three years to get this promotion, but you were only there for three _months_ and you still got it before I did. Just because you’re an alpha, and people think that alphas make natural leaders.”

The more that Ashton explained it, the more that it started to make sense to Luke. He had never really seen himself as the leader type while growing up, and that may have had to do with being the youngest alpha in his household. No one ever really expected him to do anything, so he was able to do whatever he wanted or he simply followed everyone else. So, he may not have been able to relate to the way that Ashton felt, but he understood the gist of it, so he nodded his head.

“I think I get it now… and I’m guessing that you’ve also had your heart broken by more than one alpha in the past?”

“Maybe, but not in the way that you’re thinking of. See, my dad was an alpha, but I never met him because he ditched my mom when I was a baby. My step dad was an alpha, too. He used to beat the shit out of my mom right in front of me, and I was ten, so, obviously couldn’t do anything about that. Still, that was only the beginning of a long line of shitty people that I’ve had to deal with, so I guess you can say that I’ve had some pretty bad experiences with alphas. Makes it so hard for me to trust them… makes me not want to at all.”

Hearing all of that had to be the last thing that Luke expected, and since he hasn’t been prepared for it, he really didn’t know how to react. Should he apologize? No, that might’ve been presumptuous. Also, it wasn’t as if _any_ of that was his fault. Still, he felt so sorry that Ashton had to go through something as terrible as that, and suddenly he understood why Ashton continuously refused Luke’s help when it was offered.

He didn’t trust Luke. He _couldn’t_ trust Luke.

“Shit,” Luke muttered, because he had to respond with _something_. “I think if I were you, I’d hate me, too.”

It came as a surprise when Ashton… _giggled_. It was a sound so sweet that Luke was caught off-guard for the second time, and the only thing that he could think about while Ashton laughed was just how young the crinkles by his eyes made him look.

“You can stop saying that now, by the way. It doesn’t matter what I’ve been through, because that’s no excuse for the way that I’ve been treating you. I mean, it’s not _your_ fault that our managers are a couple of omegist assholes, and I guess that I really owe you an apology, Luke. So there. I’m… sorry.”

Luke gawked at him. “What?”

Ashton sighed deeply. “You’re gonna make me say it again, aren’t you?”

“Hmm… yeah, yeah that’s pretty much what I had in mind.”

Even though Ashton rolled his eyes at the smirk that found its way on Luke’s face, he got up from the stool and went over to where Luke stood near the oven. It wasn’t clear what he meant to do until he held out his hand in offering.

“I’m very sorry that I’ve been a, what you called, ‘huge dick.’ I hope that someday you’ll find it in yourself to forgive me. Now, how about we make a proper truce, hm?”

Luke felt himself smiling even before he took Ashton’s hand and shook it.

“It’s a deal.”

Just then, the timer on the oven chimed to tell them that the pizza was finished. The sudden noise surprised Ashton so much that he nearly jumped out of skin, but instead of laughing at him, Luke simply smiled and reached for the mittens.

***

So far, sharing pizza with Ashton had to be the best part of Luke’s night.

It turned out that Ashton preferred the side that only had cheese on it, but just to be polite, he tried everything. And he _loved_ everything, according to the pleasurable sounds that he made while he ate the slices on his plate. That time Luke didn’t think about sex, because he was too busy being flattered when Ashton said to him:

“Are you sure that you’re not Italian? Because this is the yummiest pizza that I’ve had in _ages_.”

It was the greatest compliment that he could’ve given Luke in that moment.

After they had finished off the last of the pizza, Luke brought out the apple pie and vanilla ice cream that he’d bought from the store the previous day. He had originally wanted the entirety of the night’s meal to be homemade, but he didn’t want to risk fucking up the pie. That was one dish that Luke couldn’t perfect, homemade American pie with a side of Freedom.

(Ashton found that joke in particular to be very hilarious, so Luke gave himself extra points for coming up with it on the spot).

They didn’t end up playing video games or watching stupid things on YouTube, but Luke was glad when Ashton asked him to tell more stories of what it was like growing up in Sydney, and then how he adjusted to living in America. Just to keep things fair and equal, Ashton told his own stories as well, although Luke noticed that all of them centered around the past five or six years. It didn’t seem like he was comfortable talking about anything from before that, and that was okay. Luke could respect that, because he could recognize that it was a privilege for him to grow up in a safe environment with a loving family whose only drama revolved around the wrong and right ways to barbecue a steak.

Overall, it turned out to be a pretty kickass night. But when it came to the point where goodbyes were in order, Ashton didn’t leave just yet. No matter how many times Luke insisted that he didn’t have to help clean the dishes, Ashton refused to listen. He was still as stubborn as always, only now Luke was beginning to think that it was strangely endearing.

Not that he would ever, _ever_ admit it out loud.

But basically, that was how they ended up washing dishes side by side while the radio played in the living room, because Luke couldn’t bring himself to clean without listening to music. He was a messy boy at heart and music was the only thing that motivated him.

“You should invest in a new set of dish towels,” Ashton was saying, so Luke stopped whistling to the music playing in the background to listen.

“Why? What’s wrong with these?”

“They’ve got holes in them,” he explained, sticking his finger through the towel to prove a point. “I’m guessing they’re really old, too.”

Luke stared at the towel before shrugging and refocusing on the task of rinsing off a wine glass.

“They still get the job done, don’t they? Then that’s all that matters to me.”

Ashton let out a sigh. “All this money and you won’t even buy new dish towels. That just makes me really sad, Luke.”

The teasing just made Luke roll his eyes and laugh.

“Yeah, okay. Thanks for the advice, _mum_. Would you like to redecorate the rest of my kitchen for me, too?”

“Maybe I will,” Ashton teased back, and Luke tried not to stare too hard at his long fingers covered in suds. “Think I’ll start by adding some color in here. That would really lighten up the place. Maybe some blues or yellows?”

Luke snickered. “Sure, if you want this place to look like it belongs to an old woman.”

He wasn’t prepared to be attacked with suds just then, but that was precisely what happened. Ashton suddenly reached over and covered his forearm in the suds, and when Luke retaliated by spraying him a little with the water, it became war.

Luke found himself laughing the entire time, because Ashton kept shouting things like “you’re making a bigger mess!” as if _he_ wasn’t the one who started this whole thing and continued covering Luke in handfuls of soap. He probably assumed that when all of this was over with, he’d come off as the mature one who had tried to put an end to it. Well, he was utterly wrong about that, and Luke was prepared to call him out for it.

Eventually Ashton gained the upper hand, and before Luke was able to strike back, he retreated from the sink and moved over to the counter to get out of reach. He nearly slipped in the process, due to the water on the floor and his squeaky boots, and Luke laughed even louder at the sight of Ashton desperately clinging to the counter with wide eyes as if he had nearly died. With his face and torso mostly soaked in water, he almost resembled Lewi whenever Luke had to give him a bath.

“S-Stop laughing, I almost died!” he shrieked, but that only brought forth more laughter until Ashton couldn’t stop himself from laughing, too.

“You wouldn’t have _died_ ,” Luke told him. “Don’t be so dramatic. A small concussion, maybe, but certainly not death.”

Ashton rolled his eyes. “Wow, thanks. That makes me feel so much better!”

Luke turned off the faucet and went to one of the bigger kitchen drawers to pull out a clean, dry towel. Unlike Ashton, he made sure to avoid the puddle as he crossed over to the counter and handed the towel to the other man, who at least had the courtesy to thank him. While Ashton patted his face and neck with the towel, Luke positioned himself so that he was standing directly in front of Ashton, then placed both of his hands on the counter so that Ashton was trapped in between them. He became aware of his current predicament a second later, when he removed the towel from his face and saw the mischief in Luke’s eyes.

“What?”

“I won,” Luke pointed out. “You walked out of the battle zone, which means you forfeit. So, I won.”

“Aw,” Ashton cooed, reaching up to pat Luke on his wet head. He smirked and said, “I didn’t know it was that important to you, junior. What would you like as a reward? Some candy? I’m afraid I don’t have any chocolate on me.”

Luke stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. In that moment, he knew that he wasn’t thinking straight when he realized what he was about to do next, as well as when he came to the conclusion that he wouldn’t stop himself from doing it, either. He _couldn’t_ stop himself, just like he couldn’t look away from the pair of bright hazel eyes in front of him, no matter how exposed they made him feel. He wanted someone from the outside to convince him that he’d regret this, but taking in the way that Ashton was looking at him now, Luke knew that he wouldn’t.

“Guess I’ll have to settle with another consolation prize, then?” he said, his tone noticeably quieter and softer than before.

It clearly had an effect on Ashton, who swallowed audibly and didn’t move an inch even as Luke leaned closer to him. The rest of the world felt like it was holding its breath as Luke hovered just inches from Ashton’s lips, dragging the moment out to give Ashton time to push him away and stop him from going any further. But Ashton did no such thing, so Luke decided to go for it.

He angled his head to the side and kissed Ashton’s cheek. It was a soft kiss, swift and innocent, and when he pulled away, he suddenly felt like he was that same gangly little boy from Sydney again. And just like with Luke’s first kiss, neither of them said anything for a moment. They simply stood there, breathing in each other’s air.

Then, Ashton huffed out a breathy laugh that Luke felt against his lips and absorbed it with the rest of his body.

“You could at least give me a real kiss, y’know.”

All of a sudden there was a hand at the back of Luke’s neck, and he was pulled forward with so much force that the impact of their lips kind of hurt. It wouldn’t register until much later, though, because all that Luke’s mind could focus on was the reality that _they were_ _kissing._

It quickly became a lot less innocent than Luke’s kiss, too. Ashton’s tongue glided across his bottom lip until Luke obediently opened his mouth and accepted it, and he couldn’t stop himself from moaning as that tongue licked every corner of his mouth. He felt like he was having the life sucked out of him, and in the heat of the moment, Luke was perfectly okay with that.

By the time that Ashton broke the kiss and leaned back against the counter, taking pride in his work, Luke was already starving for _more_.

“See?” Ashton said, gasping a little. “Just like that…”

It took them approximately two seconds to realize that stopping had been the worst decision they could have ever made. One second after that, they were all over each other, bodies pressed firmly together and hands on any exposed skin that they could reach. When they decided that it just wasn’t enough, they chose to get rid of their shirts altogether, since they were pretty much soaked, anyway.

Luke could admit that he was a little too eager to remove Ashton’s shirt for him and toss it halfway across the room, and he would’ve liked to take a brief moment to admire the beautifully crafted body before him, but Ashton didn’t give him the opportunity. He was just as eager to even the score, which he did by pulling Luke’s shirt over his head and tossing it in a random direction, too.

Then it was back to lips on lips, tongues clashing together and the most obscene sounds coming from their mouths. It was pornographic in the best sort of way, and since Luke knew just how to make it even better, he began to push his hips forward so that they were grinding against Ashton’s. It was both a blessing and a curse when he realized that he could _feel_ Ashton against his jeans, because his cock was already hard.

The blessing came from the fact that Luke did this, he was the reason that Ashton was hard when all that they’d been doing was kissing. But it was a curse that Luke wasn’t on his knees already with the head of that cock against the back of his throat.

He could make that a reality, though.

Luke broke the kiss in order to slowly drop to his knees, and he made sure to pepper kisses all down Ashton’s chest and stomach as he went. From the way that Ashton shuddered at the press of lips against his skin, Luke guessed that the area was rather sensitive. He stored that information away to retrieve later on.

“I’m gonna suck your dick now,” he announced as he unbuttoned Ashton’s jeans as fast as his fingers could manage. He glanced back up through his thick lashes, a lopsided grin on his face. “Got any problems with that, or…?”

Ashton looked as if he could hardly contain himself from drooling at the image of Luke on his knees, so eager to do anything to please him in that moment. Consequently, it took a few seconds for him to find his voice and nod his head at the same time.

“For the love of god, _please do_.”

It was the perfect answer, in Luke’s opinion. In one swift motion, he tugged Ashton’s jeans down to his ankles along with his boxer briefs, and a pleased sigh escaped his lips when he finally laid eyes on Ashton’s cock. He’d already felt that it was a nice size, but he was still in awe now that he saw it in the flesh. Maybe he’d be able to marvel at it another time, but for now, he thought it would be best to show off his own talent by taking the entire length in a single go.

“ _Shit_ ,” Ashton cursed, and he obviously hadn’t expected Luke to do such a thing.

If not for the cock in his mouth, Luke would have laughed. Instead, he began to put his mouth to good use by bobbing his head at a steady pace, easily keeping his throat relaxed. Ashton exhaled a long, deep sigh and one of his hands found its way into Luke’s hair, which he tugged just hard enough for Luke to moan around him.

After a moment of doing that, Luke replaced his mouth with his hand in order to catch his breath, and he started using his tongue to tease Ashton by dragging it up and down the shaft. He paused every now and then to suck on the head, earning him various little sounds from above.

“What do you like?” Luke asked, just before licking at the slit. He knew that he was making Ashton feel good, that much was obvious; but making Ashton feel _good_ wasn’t exactly his goal. His intention was to make Ashton feel _fucking amazing_ , and it was difficult to know if it was working when Ashton was being so quiet.

Whether he heard Luke or not, Ashton didn’t say anything. He had given up on watching Luke pleasure him, so now he stood with his head tilted back and his eyes clenched shut, his chest heaving as he took shallow breaths. The hand that wasn’t in Luke’s hair was gripping the counter behind him, his knuckles gone white from the force of it. Clearly Luke was doing something to him, but maybe it wasn’t enough.

After all, Luke wanted to see him lose control.

Deciding to come up with a completely different strategy, Luke removed both his mouth and his hand and stopped touching Ashton altogether. The sudden lack of contact instantly got Ashton’s attention, who blinked down at Luke and looked as if he was about to ask why Luke had stopped.

“Turn around,” Luke told him.

It took a moment, but Ashton slowly nodded and did as he was told. Once he was faced the other way, Luke had the most perfect view of his perky little ass. He was smiling to himself as he leaned forward and softly kissed the left cheek, then the right one. He could feel Ashton’s glutes tensing and then relaxing beneath his mouth, which Luke took as a good sign, so he lifted his hands and used them to spread Ashton’s cheeks.

A small amount of slick was already leaking from his hole, and just the sight alone made Luke’s dick throb in his tight jeans. He inhaled deeply, letting the omega’s lovely scent fill his nostrils and spread throughout the rest of his body. It heightened the adrenaline pumping through his veins and made him yearn for _more_ , so without further ado, Luke pressed his tongue flat against the entrance.

“Ah—!” Ashton gasped suddenly, because apparently he hadn’t anticipated what Luke planned to do to him, and this type of reaction was exactly what he’d been hoping for.

Luke pressed a wet kiss to Ashton’s hole before utilizing his tongue again, using the very tip of it to lick around the rim in teasing circles that had Ashton pushing back against him and _keening_. If Luke had known that this was all it took to get him to be loud, he would have started with this from the very beginning.

“Oh my— _fuck_ , Luke, shit!” he cursed, rocking back against Luke’s tongue even as his legs quivered beneath him.

“So _this_ is what you like,” Luke teased. He briefly dived back in with his tongue, swirling it around in circles and then pulling back again. His breathing a little ragged, he laughed and said, “How dirty of you. Do you always let people eat you out like this?”

“ _Fuck you_ ,” Ashton growled, but it was completely without the usual malice. In fact, his voice was already wrecked. As his breathing picked up again, he added desperately, “Oh my god, fuck _me_.”

Luke hummed and continued licking to his heart’s content, but then Ashton repeated those last words and he realized that it wasn’t just incoherent babbling at all. He seriously wanted Luke to fuck him, and he wanted Luke to do that right now.

“Okay,” Luke gasped, nodding even though Ashton couldn’t see him from this angle. He swallowed before repeating, “Okay, yeah. I’ll fuck you, Ashton. Holy shit, I’d… I’d _love_ to.”

“Do it, then,” Ashton snapped.

Luke decided not to keep him waiting for much longer. Ashton’s hole was wet with spit and producing enough slick for Luke to insert the first finger with no issues at all, but just in case, he made sure not to rush the process. He continued kissing Ashton’s bum as he worked, being as tender as he could manage with his heart beating rapidly in his chest, and his efforts were rewarded with the sweet sounds that continued to come from Ashton’s lips.

However, he barely managed to get a second finger in before Ashton started to whine once more.

“That’s enough, I-I’m ready,” he insisted. “I’m ready.”

Luke didn’t doubt that. He carefully removed his fingers and finally noticed that while Ashton was pretty much naked, he himself still wore his uncomfortably tight jeans. Since both of them were running low on patience, Luke got rid of his jeans as fast as was physically possible, which wasn’t all _that_ fast, because skinny jeans were a bitch. But he managed to do it nonetheless, and then remembered at the last second that he still needed a condom. Thus, Luke spent even more time crouched over his discarded jeans to retrieve his wallet where he kept a condom or two just in case, while Ashton proceeded to call him a lame ass for being, well, a lame ass.

When Luke _finally_ stood behind Ashton again, his cock sheathed in a condom and Ashton’s hole waiting for him to do something, he felt all at once a great nervousness and excitement. Never had he imagined that this night would end with him about to shove his cock up Ashton’s ass, not even when Ashton allowed him to initiate a kiss. So really, this was more than just progress.

This was nothing short of a miracle.

“Are you… you sure you wanna do this?” he asked, just in case.

Ashton almost sounded scary when he replied: “Luke, if you don’t stick your goddamn cock in me _right fucking now_ , then—”

“Okay, okay! Just asking.”

Not wanting to hear the rest of that threat, Luke got on with it. He gripped Ashton’s hips with both hands, thankful that the other man was bent over the counter now to make this easier, and gradually pushed himself in.

Both of them sighed at once, and Luke was absolutely positive that nothing could compare to the feeling of their bodies joined together. It was as if being inside of Ashton was where he had always belonged, and he wasn’t just thinking that because the sex was fantastic so far. Deep within his subconscious mind, he truly believed it.

“Ashton,” Luke whispered softly but with feeling. He leaned close enough to press his lips to Ashton’s shoulder, desperately needing to kiss him anywhere that he could reach, and was pleased when Ashton moaned softly to show that he felt the same.

The way that their bodies moved together was a lot like catching fire; it began slowly at first, as an intense heat felt at a single point, when all of a sudden it spread like wild fire and nothing in its path was spared. That was how Luke felt in that moment. His body was aflame as he fucked into Ashton, maintaining the thrust of his hips at a steady pace until they took on a mind of their own. Then he no longer felt like he was in control anymore, it was just him and Ashton and the heat building up in between them until they would be swallowed whole.

At one point Luke realized that he was simply rocking into Ashton then, burying himself as deep as he could go with his face pressed against the back of Ashton’s neck. Instead of resting against the counter, Ashton’s back was arched so that it was pressed against Luke’s chest, and Luke was sure that Ashton had been repeating his name in between the swear words, but they all came together as one.

To Luke’s ears, it was the most beautiful sound.

“ _More_ ,” Ashton whined, and his head fell back against Luke’s shoulder as a second moan escaped him.

With just that one word, Luke understood exactly what he meant. They needed to be closer, somehow. Ashton needed more of him, and Luke needed to be able to look into Ashton’s eyes when he finally came. He needed all of that and _more,_ and he thought that he knew just how to get it.

In one smooth motion, Luke pulled out of Ashton and turned him around before Ashton had time to complain about the lack of a dick up his ass. Then Luke made Ashton place his arms around his neck, and gathering all of his strength, Luke gripped Ashton by the back of his thighs and attempted to pick him up so that they could kiss and fuck at the same time.

Except none of that happened at all. As it turned out, Luke wasn’t as strong as he thought that he was, or maybe he _was_ strong but simply miscalculated his sense of balance. Either way, he ended up falling flat on his ass. At least he managed to take Ashton down with him, and the terrified squealing sound that Ashton made was almost funny enough to distract Luke from the pain of the impact on the cold, hard tile.

That was how Luke ended up lying on his back on the floor and staring up at the ceiling, the fluorescent lights blinding his vision and making his headache just a bit worse. The weight on top of him shifted, and then there was Ashton, leaning over him with both shock and concern on his reddened face.

“Oh god, are you okay?!”

The genuine concern that Ashton felt for him brought a smile to Luke’s face, despite everything else that he was feeling right then. His limbs were a little sore, his head had thumped against the tile and he probably had a minor concussion, and most importantly, his dick was still rock hard. He tried not to think of Ashton’s words from earlier when he had been the one who nearly fell, because the irony behind the situation was too much to bear.

“Yeah,” Luke said at last, pushing himself up on his elbows. “I think so.”

They continued staring at each other for another two seconds, before both of them burst into laughter at the same time. They laughed for so long and so hard that Luke forgot all about the pain as it lessened with each second that went by. If anything, this would make for a good story later on.

“What the hell were you even trying to _do_?” Ashton questioned, wiping the tears at the corners of his eye.

“I was just trying to pick you up!” Luke said. He didn’t bother to hide his blush. “I just thought that, you know… maybe I could try fucking you against the refrigerator or something like that?”

While it had sounded like the perfect idea in Luke’s head, it sounded completely awful coming out of his mouth. That was why Ashton couldn’t help laughing again, and normally Luke would have teased him right back, but the sound of Ashton’s joy was currently doing wonderful things to his tummy. For a second, he hoped that Ashton would never stop laughing.

“Okay,” Ashton said a moment later. He had finally ceased laughing. “Okay, I’m done.”

Luke felt his heart sink. “Done…?”

“With laughing at you,” he quickly clarified upon seeing the disappointment on Luke’s face. “Not with, um… not done _with_ _you_.”

That instantly raised Luke’s spirits again. He smiled and reached up to tuck some of Ashton’s messy sex hair behind his ear, only for it to fall into his face again. Oh well, Luke loved it like this, too.

“Oh, yeah?” He wiggled his brows suggestively.

Ashton giggled. “Yeah.”

Without another word, Ashton wiggled around on top of Luke until he was positioned just right, then he sank down on Luke’s cock like it was _made_ for him. And hell, maybe it was. Luke wasn’t about to deny that, not when he was suddenly surrounded by that heavenly warmth again. No, he wouldn’t deny it in a million years.

“Feel better yet?” Ashton asked, staring down at Luke in a way that made his entire body respond.

“ _So much better_ ,” Luke replied, gasping out the words.

He placed his hands on Ashton’s hips and waited to be ridden to the moon, but Ashton didn’t start to move his hips just yet. Instead, he leaned down enough to kiss Luke, and this time it was a slow and deep kiss that had both of them moaning into each other’s mouths.

Ashton was really good with his tongue when it came to kissing, perhaps even _too_ good, if that was possible. Luke had kissed quite a few people in his life so far, but never had anyone kissed him like _this_. It was a lot like being fucked, thoroughly and passionately, only with a tongue instead of a cock. It was still amazing, though. And it still managed to take Luke’s breath away.

“You taste so good, Luke,” Ashton murmured as he removed his tongue, only to put his mouth to use elsewhere when he began sucking at Luke’s bottom lip. From there he moved on to Luke’s jawline, and then his neck after that. “I just wanna taste all of you…”

Luke thought that he was going to melt underneath that mouth and that tongue. Those honest words made the heat outside and inside of his body twice as unbearable, but nothing was as torturous as the heat around his cock. He was still inside of Ashton, harder than ever, and Ashton was still giving him kisses and whispering against his hot skin. It was beginning to drive him mad.

Unable to take it anymore, Luke tightened his hands on Ashton’s hips to remind him to put them to good use.

“C’mon,” he half-begged, half-demanded. “ _Ride me_.”

It threw him off when Ashton suddenly laughed in his face. He didn’t immediately get what he wanted, either. What Luke got was Ashton’s hands around his wrists as he removed them from his hips, and next thing Luke knew, Ashton had his wrists pinned above his head. It was unexpected and so unbelievably _hot_ that Luke gasped in surprise, his eyes widening as he stared up into the hazel ones above him.

All that Ashton said to him was:

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

Luke almost climaxed right then and there. In fact it was a miracle that he didn’t, because he definitely should have. He ultimately decided against coming up with a witty response to that, because as far as he was concerned, Ashton had the power to decide whether or not he was coming tonight. Luke may have been in control before, but he wasn’t so sure that he was now.

Finally, Ashton began to move his hips again. He started by grinding first, moving back and forth in a smooth motion that reminded Luke of the ocean waves back in Sydney. And just like the ocean tides had the ability to get a bit wild, so did Ashton.

Luke kept his hands above his head even when Ashton released his wrists. He didn’t know why he did this, but he also didn’t know his own name at this point. All that he could focus on was Ashton, who bounced up and down on his cock so gracefully that it could’ve been mistaken as an art form.

What really drove Luke crazy was the way that every muscle in Ashton’s body seemed to be at work, and Luke wanted nothing more than to touch the beautiful veins poking out of his forearms. In contrast, Ashton’s face was entirely relaxed. With his eyes shut and his mouth wide open, he looked as if he had discovered the path towards nirvana.

All of it was unbelievably beautiful, but it was also too much to handle for this long. Luke could feel the knot uncoiling in the pit of his stomach and he knew that he would come within the next few seconds, but he wanted them to do it together. He wanted to come to the gorgeous sight of _Ashton_ coming, and he wanted it more than anything else in the world.

Finally moving one of his arms from above his head, Luke was quick in wrapping his hand around Ashton’s cock instead. Only seconds passed before Ashton’s face was crumbling, all composure lost as his orgasm snuck up on him and spilled all over Luke’s hand and stomach. Luke was quick to follow suit, though he remembered less about the actual feeling of it happening and more about the heavy weight against his chest when Ashton collapsed on top of him.

For an unknown amount of time, everything was white noise. Every bone in Luke’s body felt heavy but happy, and to be honest, he would have fallen asleep in that exact spot if not for the fact that reality caught up to him as soon as his post-sex haze wore off. Then his body reminded him that the floor was uncomfortable as hell, and if he didn’t get up soon, he just might develop back problems. On top of that, the floor was cold and clammy against his bare skin and just, _no_.

Luke cleared his throat to get the attention of his dozing partner.

“Mmm,” was all that Ashton said, and then he nuzzled further into Luke’s neck.

Well, that wasn’t going to work. Luke tried for a different approach, where he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position until Ashton got the picture and made it easier on him. He still didn’t get up right away, though. He seemed to be using Luke’s body as his primary source of warmth and comfort, which was pretty damn adorable if Luke was being honest.

“We’ll be far more comfortable in bed,” he promised, and he pressed a kiss to Ashton’s lips before standing up to toss away the dirty condom. When Ashton finally tried to do the same, he found that it was difficult to stand and failed twice in a row. Luke smirked because he may have had something to do with that, and said, “Need any help?”

“No,” Ashton replied at once. So, looks like he was already back to being stubborn.

Luke stood there and watched for another moment as Ashton attempted to use his legs. Unfortunately for him, they didn’t seem to feel like cooperating. They wobbled the entire time that Ashton used the counter to pull himself up from the floor, and after just taking one step, he nearly fell again. One or both of his legs must’ve been asleep, and Luke supposed that it probably hadn’t been a good idea to have sex on the floor, of all places, when there was a couch not that far away.

So, because watching Ashton look pathetic was less appealing than going to _sleep_ , Luke decided to take matters into his own hands. He made sure that he was using _all_ of his strength and balance this time, before scooping Ashton up in his arms, bridal style.

“What the—Luke!”

“Fight it and we’re both going down. _Again_ ,” Luke warned him, just when Ashton began to squirm.

It didn’t take him long to decide that that hadn’t been fun the first time, so it definitely wouldn’t be fun the second time, either. And that was how Luke ended up carrying a sleepy, grumpy Ashton to bed with him that night.

***

Luke woke up to the sound of something falling off the bed. Or rather, _someone_.

He didn’t bother opening his eyes because he was exhausted as hell, and he’d been dreaming of finally being able to bake the most perfect apple pie as everyone cheered for him. He’d very much love to get back to that dream, so he nuzzled deeper into the pillow and forced himself to reclaim his state of unconsciousness.

Unfortunately for Luke, the noise didn’t stop. Now that he was awake, his ears picked up the sound of something slowly moving around the room, and it was weird but he was positive that it was his bedsheets ruffling together. Then, there was a meow.

_Lewi_. Of course it was Lewi.

Luke was about to consider banishing Lewi from his room for making so much noise first thing in the morning, when he heard the meowing accompanied by what could only be a human’s voice. If Luke heard correctly, they were shushing Lewi and whispering for him to shut the hell up—which, _rude!_ No one tells Luke’s cat to shut up but him!

That was when Luke gave up on sleep altogether. He lifted his head in the direction of the noise and blinked several times so that his eyes could adjust to the natural lightning in the room, and his heart rate instantly picked up at the sight of Ashton standing at the foot of the bed.

Ashton didn’t notice that Luke had awakened because he was still staring down at the floor, where Luke guessed Lewi must have been blocking his path. He looked unusually tense as he whispered for the cat to move out of the way, and the only reason that he didn’t move the cat himself was because he was allergic to the little guy. That was only one of the many memories that Luke contained from the night before, and his cheeks quickly darkened as he recalled the memory of Ashton on top of him.

Regardless of the wonderful things that had happened the night before, Luke’s mind was finally awake enough to process what was happening now in the present. That was when he realized that Ashton was trying to leave before he had the chance to wake up.

Luke felt a dull ache settle in his chest.

“Leaving without saying goodbye?”

His groggy morning voice sounded terrible in his own ears, so he could only wonder what it sounded like to Ashton, who instantly turned his head in Luke’s direction. His eyes were as wide as a deer’s when caught in headlights, and if not for the fact that he was trying to escape, Luke would have taken a moment to appreciate the messy hair atop Ashton’s head and how cute he looked, using a sheet to cover his otherwise naked body.

The question hung in the air for a few uncomfortable seconds, and then Ashton averted his gaze to stare down at his feet.

“Oh. Um.” He paused to hoist the sheet up a little higher. “I… yeah. Just didn’t want it to be awkward, is all.”

Luke pushed himself up to rest on his elbows. “Well… I guess now it is.”

A second awkward silence fell over them where Luke stared at Ashton and Ashton stared only at the floor, effectively avoiding eye contact. And while Luke didn’t expect them to suddenly become like a married couple after the events of last night, he also didn’t expect things to revert back to the way that they’d been before the dinner-not-date: awkward and uncomfortable.

Eventually, Ashton looked at him and said, “Okay, well, I have to go now, so.”

“Okay,” Luke replied, because what else could he possibly say? “And you’re just gonna take my sheet with you?”

Ashton glanced down at the sheet wrapped around him and then back up at Luke. He opened his mouth to say something, probably that his clothes were still lying on the kitchen floor where they’d fucked each other senseless, but then he decided against it and closed his mouth again. In a single motion, he dropped the sheet to the floor and marched towards the exit in all his glory. Luke didn’t bother not staring at his ass as he retreated.

It was only a few minutes later when Luke had heard the familiar click of the front door. Now he was officially alone again.

From where he had hopped up to perch on the foot of the bed, bathing in the morning sunlight, Lewi turned to look at his adoptive dad. He meowed once and tilted his head to the side, much to Luke’s dismay.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he grumbled.

Then Luke buried his face in the pillow and tried his best to forget what Ashton had felt like, and the way that he had smelled.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading~  
> feel free to scream at me about anything in the comments  
> or on my blog @faesey.tumblr :D


	2. Catalyst

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!! I finished the last chapter so I will try to upload that on Tuesday?
> 
>  **Warning:** for Ashton being a stubborn crab; seriously, stop being so stubborn; also, implication of dub-con near the end (not between Luke/Ashton so don't freak out)

* * *

 

Luke found himself in a dilemma. He had trouble eating, sleeping comfortably at night, and completing minor tasks that shouldn’t have required so much concentration. He told himself that he just wasn’t trying hard enough to focus and be normal, whatever _normal_ was, but this type of mindset didn’t last for long because he knew the truth and he couldn’t hide from it forever.

To put it simply, Luke couldn’t get Ashton Irwin out of his head.

It wasn’t just about the sex either, despite how mind-blowing that had been. It was about everything, from the conversations and the nonstop banter to the silly water fight that they’d had. Luke desperately wanted to experience _more_ of that, all of that, but he didn’t think that he’d be able to.

For one thing, Ashton began avoiding him at work again. At first Luke thought that it was a coincidence that Ashton traded shifts with someone the night after they’d had sex, but when he came back because he couldn’t keep trading shifts forever, it became obvious that he didn’t want anything to do with Luke.

That’s what didn’t make any sense. Luke probably wouldn’t have minded if it had just been a one-night stand with a total stranger, but the entire point was that he had wanted to get to know Ashton. They were supposed to be on their way towards something akin to friendship. And okay, so neither of them planned to have sex on the kitchen floor and spend the night cuddled up in bed, but shit like that happened sometimes! And since it ended up happening to them, clearly it meant that they had something special between them.

The thought of having something _more_ with Ashton made Luke’s tummy flutter, and the irony was beyond anything that he could handle.

He was _not_ mentioning this to Michael and Calum.

On the third night of being avoided by Ashton, Luke found that he was very distracted. While serving the guests and showing people to their seats, his eyes kept wandering around the room until they settled on Ashton, and he’d watch Ashton cheerfully interacting with the customers until he was out of sight and Luke was forced to focus again. It was becoming problematic, Luke knew, but he didn’t realize just how problematic until he ended up colliding with a waitress that resulted in a plate being dropped.

At that point, Luke knew that he really needed to get over himself.

After apologizing half a dozen times and helping with the cleanup, Luke’s stomach dropped when Chuck suddenly notified him that the manager, François, wished to have a word with him. And since François had never wished to have “a word” with him before, it could only mean that it was bad.

You see, there were three types of bosses that a person could end up working for. The first type was the friend-boss, whose last intention would be to come off as intimidating. These were the bosses who tried to get to know their employees, who treated everyone equally and emphasized teamwork. Sometimes it was overbearing, how much they tried to be everyone’s friend, but they were lenient when it came down to it.

Another type of boss that Luke had experience with were the ones who were strict and impersonal. They made sure that everyone knew they were the ones in charge and that they had all of the power. They didn’t give a damn about getting to know the employees, they didn’t care about staff picnics and whatever else some workplaces came up with these days. It was all about the job and how well you performed it.

Then, there was François. He was neither type A nor type B. Working for François felt more like working for a mob boss, and this was something that everyone would agree with. The man was intimidating without even trying, and though he acted friendly, there were always hidden messages in-between his words. For instance, if you fucked up more than once and failed to show any signs of future improvement, François would smile and ask to have “a word” with you. Then, you were never seen again.

That was how things worked at Le Chatelier’s. You never wanted to be called into François’ office, which he rarely ever left, because it probably meant that you would no longer have a job by the time that you walked out. And if the rumors were true (they probably weren’t, but people loved drama), then you wouldn’t have a life, either. François was known for being able to make or break people.

Knowing all of this, Luke felt like he was walking to his death when he left the dining area to make his way to where François was located. He refused to believe that he was going to be fired when all that he had done was cause a plate to drop, because accidents happened and people made mistakes! But what if it was something else that Luke had done? Something far, far worse without even realizing it? He didn’t even want to think about it. He wished he had called his parents to tell them that he loved them before facing his inevitable doom, but keeping François waiting wouldn’t have been wise on his part.

Taking a deep breath, Luke knocked on his boss’ door and waited for permission to be let in. François didn’t _sound_ angry when he told Luke to enter, but then again, he never sounded angry. _Never_. That’s what made him so scary to everyone who worked there, because they could never tell when he was happy with them or not.

When Luke poked his head through the door, François looked up at him and smiled. He was a man in his early to mid-forties, but he dressed like he was an Italian mobster from the 1930s. Maybe that was the reason that people started rumors about what he did behind the scenes. He had jet black hair that was always neatly slicked back, and his face was always clean shaven because he valued neatness. There was a small mole near his left eye that might’ve been a beauty mark, and the only ounce of color found on him were his piercing dark blue eyes.

He was devastatingly handsome. With his perfectly carved jawline and straight teeth, he made Luke feel ugly just from being in his presence.

“Please, have a seat,” François said, and then he went back to writing whatever it was that he was working on.

Despite the use of the word please, it still felt like an order. Luke nodded and sat down as quickly as he could manage without tripping over the chair, and he told himself that if he looked confident and unafraid, François just may spare him.

God, he certainly hoped so.

There was a brief moment of uncomfortable silence before François actually said anything else to him.

“So, how are you adjusting to your new position as head waiter?”

It wasn’t what Luke had expected him to say, but he immediately recognized it as small talk. It only made Luke twice as nervous for what was to come, but he could do this. Small talk was easy, simple, and even though he’d rather François cut to the chase, it would give him some time to prepare himself.

“Ah, it’s been amazing, sir!” Luke replied, and he thought that maybe he sounded too enthusiastic, too artificial, so he made sure to tone it down a bit before speaking again. “I mean, it’s been a month since I was actually promoted, but I’m still learning more and more with each day that goes by. Honestly, I can’t thank you enough for the opportunity that you’ve given me.”

“No need for that,” François said around an easy laugh that still had Luke trembling. “You deserved it.”

 _No, I didn’t_ , Luke thought. Not that he’d ever say it out loud, but even he knew that it was the truth. Ashton was the one who had deserved the position above anyone else, but it wasn’t given to him just because he was an omega. Luke was sure that such discrimination had to be against the guidelines, or something like that.

“And how are you getting along with the rest of the team?” he asked suddenly. He didn’t look at Luke and he hadn’t stopped writing.

“Oh, um, they’ve been great?” Luke thought of the way that Ashton had been treating him for the past few weeks and the evil glares from across the room, but the mental images began to collide with the Ashton who had laughed at his jokes and the Ashton who had sank down on his cock.

“You haven’t had any problems, then?”

“No, not that I can recall…”

“And what about Irwin?”

Luke’s eyes widened at the mention of Ashton, and he suddenly began to wonder if François had the supernatural ability to read minds. He quickly pushed that thought out of the window when he remembered that it made sense that François would be aware of the tension between the two. Not because he had eyes everywhere or some creepy shit like that, but because it was probably obvious and Ashton had thrown a fit the night that Luke was promoted.

To be honest, even if they hadn’t ended up sleeping together, Luke probably still wouldn’t be comfortable with snitching on the guy.

“Well, actually…” he began, struggling to come up with a lie quick enough. He rubbed the back of his neck and laughed, a gesture that he always did when he was really anxious. “He’s been… pretty helpful?”

François let out another easy laugh—Luke really wished that he would stop doing that—and set down the pen. He linked his hands together in a formal but relaxed manner and finally met Luke’s eyes, though Luke wished that he wouldn’t do that, either.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “I’m only making sure because that’s part of my job. It’s my belief that… well, the most successful business is run by people who can get along and respect each other. If one piece of the puzzle didn’t fit well with the others, it would make sense to get rid of it, no?”

Luke swallowed nervously and nodded. “Yeah, yeah I guess so.”

François smiled at him. “Good. Very good.”

He turned away from Luke, then. His eyes focused on the computer screen this time, and as he began typing something into the keyboard, he spoke up again.

“You’re dismissed, by the way.”

Luke was all too eager to get the hell out of there. He thanked his boss, though he didn’t know what he was thanking him for, and scrambled to stand up from the too-comfortable armchair. When Luke got to the door, his heart throbbed in his chest when François called out to him again. Luke looked back to find him smiling, though it was twice as sinister this time, in his opinion.

“No secrets, understand? Come to me if you need any help.”

Luke tried his best to smile back.

“Of course.”

***

If Luke read in between the lines of what François had said and interpreted it correctly, he guessed it meant that he and Ashton were at risk of losing their damn jobs if they didn’t start to get along with each other soon. Or, maybe just Ashton was at risk, because François seemed to favor Luke. It made his skin crawl, to be honest. But that didn’t matter right then, because the last thing that Luke wanted was for Ashton to get fired because of him.

Therefore, they had to make up with each other as soon as possible.

Later on that same evening when it was nearly closing time, Ashton took a quick bathroom break. Since it was the first opportunity that Luke saw for him to get Ashton alone so that they could talk this out, he followed behind just a minute later.

Ashton was washing his hands at the sink, but he froze when he saw that it was Luke who’d come in. When their eyes met, his widened and he looked as if he was deciding between his fight or flight instincts. In the end, he continued washing his hands and acting as if it wasn’t Luke who slid up to the sink and leaned his back against it.

“Hi,” Luke said. It was best to start off small.

In that dreadfully neutral tone, Ashton replied, “What do you want, Luke?”

“What do you mean? Am I not allowed to say hi now?”

Apparently he wasn’t allowed, because Ashton resorted to ignoring him again. Well, he should’ve known by now that Luke had the ability to be just as stubborn and difficult to deal with. He wasn’t leaving this bathroom until they had a proper conversation.

Thus, Luke mustered up his infamous cocky tone and said, “You know, when you’re not barking at me or giving me the stink eye, you’re actually really nice to talk to… and also really easy to tease. It’s pretty fun, actually.”

When Ashton said nothing, Luke reached over and turned off the sink. Just as he’d anticipated, Ashton gave him said stink eye and looked as if he was about to tell Luke off for being a nuance, so Luke made sure to speak first.

“I like you.”

The sudden confession managed to take Ashton by great surprise. For a moment there, all that he did was stare at Luke in shock.

“That’s not funny.”

“It wasn’t a joke.”

“What the hell is your deal?”

“What the hell is _yours_?”

Clearly they were getting nowhere, so Ashton sighed and said:

“Listen, Luke. You don’t have to…” He paused to sigh again. “I was wrong, okay? There, I’m saying it again. I was wrong about you and I’m sorry. But what happened between us the other night…”

Luke was pretty sure that his heart stopped beating in his chest. He knew what was coming next and he didn’t want to hear it, didn’t want to have to face the fact that his feelings were more than likely unrequited. Even though he knew that it wasn’t true, even though he was _positive_ that Ashton had to feel some ounce of affection towards him, he still didn’t know if he could take it.

“It didn’t mean anything,” Ashton finished, killing him softly. “It was just sex, alright? And okay, I won’t deny that I find you very attractive. I mean… I wouldn’t have slept with you if I didn’t think that about you. But there just isn’t any…”

“Chemistry?” Luke offered.

“Yes! No chemistry, whatsoever. You know it, I know it, we both know it! Therefore, I think that it would be best if we could find some way to just… put all of this behind us and move on—”

He was cut off when Luke moved and was suddenly pressed up against his back. Luke watched his reflection in the mirror for a reaction, and Ashton stared back at him with wide eyes.

“And how sure are you about that?” he murmured, leaning some of his weight against Ashton’s back.

“Luke…?”

“Because to me, it doesn’t sound like you’re that sure about anything. Actually, I know that you aren’t. You’re just pretending because you don’t want to acknowledge what you _really_ feel, and what you really feel is so damn intense that it’s driving you up the wall, isn’t it?”

Ashton let out a shuddered breath but didn’t dare break eye contact.

“You’re wrong.”

“Am I? I can smell you, Ashton.” To prove his point, Luke pressed his nose against the back of Ashton’s neck and inhaled deeply. It was even more powerful than it had been the other night. “Why is it that the pheromones you give off grow even stronger whenever I’m near you?”

It was no surprise that Ashton had nothing to say to that. They both knew that it was true, so there was no point in arguing against it. When it all came down to it, Ashton _wanted_ Luke. Craved him, even. Why he refused to admit this, Luke didn’t know, but he decided that he was laying his cards on the table and giving Ashton the chance to do the same.

"You know what you want, Ashton. You know it, I know it, so ask yourself: what the fuck are you waiting for?"

Luke pressed a single kiss to the back of Ashton’s neck before backing off. He had given Ashton a choice to make, but he wouldn’t rush him in making it. Because as much as Luke craved Ashton in return, he wanted things between them to be built on something good, not bad. That’s why he restrained himself and turned around to walk towards the bathroom door.

Luke was reaching for the doorknob when a hand grabbed his wrist, stopping him. When he looked up and saw hazel, he knew that he was falling and he wasn’t afraid to land. Ashton pushed him up against the door and kissed him, hot and desperate, his tongue already attempting to breach past Luke’s lips. It was silly, because he should’ve known by now that Luke wouldn’t deny him of this—of _anything_ , probably. So he parted his lips and let Ashton take all that he wanted and more.

When Ashton was satisfied enough to pull away, breathing hard and blushing deeply, Luke smirked. He just couldn’t help himself. However, Ashton frowned at said smirk because he knew exactly what it meant.

“I hate you for this.”

“Okay.”

“I’m serious.”

“Okay.”

“You’re just another cocky bastard, underneath it all.”

Luke hummed. “And what does that make you?”

Ashton opened his mouth but no words came out of it. He stared at Luke and Luke stared back, openly challenging him. It might’ve been suicidal, but Luke had always been hardheaded. What was the point in changing now, when Ashton clearly liked him this way?

Quietly, Ashton said: “A fool…”

Luke smiled at him. “Guess we’re not all that different, huh?”

Because he couldn’t resist, Luke placed a hand in Ashton’s hair and carded his fingers through the loose curls. He noted the way that Ashton closed his eyes and exhaled a deep sigh, obviously enjoying Luke’s touch even when it was just a small act like this. Again, he reminded Luke of Lewi. When Luke chuckled at the thought, Ashton opened his eyes again.

“Shut up and kiss me.”

Luke hadn’t realized just how _starved_ Ashton was, but he made it clear with the amount of force that he used when kissing Luke and tongue-fucking him. It was almost too much to handle, and Luke loved every second of it. Curious about what Ashton planned to do next, Luke kept his back against the door and didn’t once try to take over. He kept his hands on Ashton’s hips but didn’t let them move. For the moment, he was letting Ashton have all of the control.

“I’m gonna—” Luke hissed as Ashton left a hickey just below his earlobe. “I’m gonna say something, but you have to promise not to laugh.”

Ashton hummed to show that he was listening, and with his tongue, he licked over the bruised area.

“I missed you.”

Much to Luke’s dismay, the jerk began to laugh at him anyway.

“Hey, you promised!”

“I made no such promises,” Ashton said. He began to kiss along Luke’s jawline now, nipping occasionally. “You just took my silence as one.”

“Okay… that’s fair.” Luke tried his best to keep his voice steady, but it was the hardest thing to do when Ashton’s mouth was entirely merciless and wild. So with his voice strained, Luke asked, “Did you miss me, too?”

“Not answering that.”

“C’mon, admit it.”

Ashton sighed. “Luke, you’re making my dick soft.”

But Luke wasn’t giving up that easily, because if he was choosing to let Ashton ravage his face and neck, then Ashton could at least give him this. That was why he let go of Ashton’s hip with one hand and grabbed the hair at the back of his head, forcing Ashton to look him in the eyes.

“Just say it and I’ll stop asking.”

Ashton narrowed his eyes, but then his mouth curved up into a wicked grin.

“You wanna know what I missed?” He leaned so close that their lips were just barely brushing up against each other, and Luke had to fight the urge not to kiss him. Then, he whispered, “Your cock inside of me.”

Later on, Luke wouldn’t even deny the moan that escaped him just then. Everything about Ashton was just so unfair, okay, because he was too good with his mouth and his words and his—his _face_ , god, no one should’ve been allowed to be that pretty. He was _so_ pretty, with his dirty blonde curls and his hazel eyes and pink lips.

Luke absolutely hated him.

No, he did not.

“Maybe we can… do that again sometime?”

Ashton let out a breath. “Or, maybe we can do it now.”

Luke was forced to watch as he proceeded to drop to his knees, and somehow he did so without breaking eye contact. Ashton’s big hands went for the button on Luke’s pants, but before he did anything, he said:

“Let me repay you the favor?”

Honestly? Luke couldn’t nod fast enough.

The way that Ashton sucked dick was very true to his character: fast, thorough, and a bit rough around the edges. He looked at Luke’s impending orgasm like it was a challenge to see how quickly he could make it happen, how hard he could make Luke come. Whenever Ashton pulled off to lick him instead, Luke was hardly given any time to catch his breath before his entire cock was being engulfed again. And while Ashton’s mouth worked on the shaft, he used one of his hands to play around with Luke’s balls.

So really, with all of that going on at the same time, could you really blame Luke for coming within the three minute mark? To be completely fair, he hadn’t masturbated the past couple of nights, okay, so he was totally backed up and overly sensitive! Otherwise he would have lasted much, much longer. He reassured himself with these thoughts as Ashton sucked him dry, swallowing every drop until there was nothing left.

Satisfied with his accomplishment, Ashton wiped his chin with the back of his hand and grinned up at Luke like a wild cat baring its fangs.

“How was that?” he asked, his voice ragged from how reckless he’d been.

Luke was a little too stunned and fucked out to think of anything snarky to say, so as he pulled his underwear and pants back up, he settled with the first thing that came to his jumbled up mind.

“I think… think I’m gonna be feeling that for days, if my dick doesn’t fall off first.”

Ashton had the damn nerve to giggle in a sort of bashful manner, as if he hadn’t just been deep-throating Luke to hell and back. Like, something was seriously wrong with this guy, so why the hell did he turn Luke on so much?

Maybe Luke had a new type.

He watched as Ashton brought two fingers to his mouth and began to slowly suck on them, eyes never leaving Luke’s face as he did so. His other hand went to his crotch, where he began to gently rub himself through his pants. After what they’d just done, Luke didn’t have to guess that he was probably as hard as can be. His facial expression showed it as well, as he moaned around the fingers in his mouth.

“I think I’m really wet,” he muttered, and his wink was an obvious invitation for Luke to find out just how wet he really was.

It was the greatest invitation that a person could receive, but Luke couldn’t shake the mental reminder that they were still at _work_ and yet they’d been gone for a while. They were lucky that no one had come to look for them already, but given enough time, that was precisely what would’ve happened.

Luke knew that what he was about to do was very, very evil. He knew that it was cruel and totally unfair, especially since Ashton had just fucked his brains out with the use of that sinful mouth. But Luke also knew that teasing Ashton was one of his most favorite things to do, and after the way that Ashton had been avoiding him the past few days and simultaneously driving Luke insane by appearing in his dreams, Luke thought that a bit of revenge was in order.

“Yeah?” he said with a raised brow, and then the corners of his lips quirked up into a devilish grin. “You should dry yourself up, then. We’ve still got plenty of work to do.”

The look of shock and betrayal on Ashton’s face was more satisfying than it should’ve been, and just in case he felt like biting Luke’s face off, Luke spun around and escaped from the bathroom whilst he still had the chance.

***

Luke had been napping on the couch when he was disturbed by the sound of a small crash, and when he opened his eyes he saw that Lewi had knocked the TV remote onto the floor. As per usual. The cat meowed at him and Luke meowed back, feeling cranky and sleepy at the same time. It wasn’t often that he had time to take well-needed naps, and apparently this time wasn’t working out either.

His phone vibrated from somewhere beneath him. He eventually found it in between one of the cushions, and he was pleasantly surprised when he saw that he had over twenty new text messages. Well, until he realized that all but one of them came from the group chat that he was in with Michael and Calum.

The other text message was from his mother, asking how he was doing and if he was still alive at all. She passive-aggressively added that he didn’t call her enough to let her know that he wasn’t lying in a morgue somewhere, which was definitely an exaggeration, but Luke made a mental note to give his parents a call first thing in the morning. Knowing them, they were most likely asleep at this early hour in the night.

Afterwards, Luke opened the group chat and briefly skimmed the ongoing conversation to see why they were bothering him now, of all times.

> **Calum** (8:34 PM)
> 
> Luke  
>  Hey  
>  Omg wake your ass up
> 
> **Michael** (8:52 PM)
> 
> LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKE  
>  HEY SHITSTAIN WHATRE U DOING RN  
>  probably jerkin off  
>  ok don’t ignore me that hurts my feelings :/  
>  did he died lmao
> 
> **Calum** (8:54 PM)
> 
> Or he’s just sleeping  
>  At 9 in the evening like an old man  
>  Seriously dude wake up
> 
> **Michael** (8:55 PM)
> 
> but what if he was dead tho  
>  and then he replied back  
>  bc he was a ghost
> 
> **Calum** (8:55 PM)
> 
> Go on…
> 
> **Michael** (8:56 PM)
> 
> do u think ghost luke would give us his BMW
> 
> **Calum** (8:56 PM)
> 
> Fuck no  
>  If I was a ghost with a BMW I’d keep it
> 
> **Michael** (8:57 PM)
> 
> k but  
>  what would a ghost need w/ a fuckin car
> 
> **Calum** (8:57 PM)
> 
> He could drive it obviously
> 
> **Michael** (8:58 PM)
> 
> explain how
> 
> **Calum** (8:58 PM)
> 
> Well if he can text while dead then he can drive  
>  Just like imagine it though  
>  A car driving on its own down the street  
>  That would be so fucked up
> 
> **Michael** (9:00 PM)
> 
> dude he could go over the speed limit  
>  then a cop pulls him over like  
>  “license and registration pls”  
>  ONLY THERES NO ONE FUCKIGN THERE
> 
> **Calum** (9:01 PM)
> 
> Cop: *shits himself*
> 
> **Michael** (9:01 PM)
> 
> or herself*  
>  jeez don’t be sexist calum
> 
> **Calum** (9:02 PM)
> 
> Cop: *shits themselves*
> 
> **Michael** (9:03 PM)
> 
> cop: *cleans self up and steals the BMW*
> 
> **Calum** (9:03 PM)
> 
> Oh my god lmao  
>  Cop: *drives across the country*
> 
> **Michael** (9:04 PM)
> 
> cop: *picks up other cops along the way n forms beautiful friendships w/ all of them*
> 
> **Luke** (9:05 PM)
> 
> what the fuck???????
> 
> **Michael** (9:05 PM)
> 
> OH SHIT IT’S GHOST LUKE
> 
> **Calum** (9:05 PM)
> 
> Why do you nap at night  
>  Explain yourself bitch
> 
> **Luke** (9:06 PM)
> 
> WHY are you 2 blowing up my phone  
>  also why am I a ghost wtf
> 
> **Michael** (9:06 PM)
> 
> it was a hypothetical situation luke  
>  use your imagination -3-
> 
> **Calum** (9:07 PM)
> 
> Stop doing that face
> 
> **Michael** (9:07 PM)
> 
> :3
> 
> **Calum** (9:08 PM)
> 
> You goddamn weeaboo
> 
> **Michael** (9:08 PM)
> 
> ur the one fucking a weeaboo  
>  #SCORCHED
> 
> **Luke** (9:09 PM)
> 
> i’m leaving the chat
> 
> **Michael** (9:10 PM)
> 
> NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
> 
> **Calum** (9:10 PM)
> 
> Wait  
>  Come drinking with us tonight  
>  It’ll be fun I promise
> 
> **Luke** (9:11 PM)
> 
> ok… i’m staying in the chat  
>  will it be at the usual place?
> 
> **Michael** (9:11 PM)
> 
> yes yes yes  
>  we’re leaving now so  
>  be ready in 20???
> 
> **Luke** (9:13 PM)
> 
> yeah i’m already half dressed  
>  wait who’s gonna be our dd
> 
> **Michael** (9:13 PM)
> 
> :D  
>  don’t tell him
> 
> **Luke** (9:13 PM)
> 
> tell me what
> 
> **Calum** (9:14 PM)
> 
> Ummmm  
>  It’s… Ashton
> 
> **Luke** (9:15 PM)
> 
> …  
>  seriously???
> 
> **Michael** (9:15 PM)
> 
> ugh yes seriously  
>  ok we know u hate him but like  
>  hes the only one who said yes  
>  literally no one else wanted to watch us get drunk so  
>  hes a lot nicer than you think ok
> 
> **Calum** (9:23 PM)
> 
> Luke???  
>  Don’t tell me you changed your mind
> 
> **Luke** (9:25 PM)
> 
> i’m outside  
>  where are you guys?

***

Luke was not only pathetic, he was whipped.

The moment that he was told Ashton would be their designated driver for the night, he hopped up from the couch so damn fast that he ended up scaring Lewi. Then he’d made a quick dash to his bedroom, where he changed out of his ripped t-shirt and put on something nice. Of course he wanted to be presentable, not just because he was going to be in Ashton’s presence but because…

Well, exactly because he was going to be in Ashton’s presence.

Ever since Ashton had given him a blowjob in the employee bathroom the day before, it was all that Luke could think about. Although, technically speaking, he hadn’t stopped thinking about Ashton since the night that they’d had sex, but the bathroom blowjob was a nice addition to his many fantasies.

But as always, Luke needed more. Tonight was going to be the perfect opportunity to get more. At least, he hoped so. It was going to be a bit of a challenge, because Calum and Michael were still under the impression that Luke hated Ashton’s guts. He didn’t know why he still hadn’t told them that it was quite the opposite nowadays, but he knew one thing for sure: keeping it a secret made it twice as exciting.

That was why the journey to their usual gay bar was a tad bit awkward. Ashton was in the driver’s seat of Michael’s car, while Michael sat in the passenger seat and Luke sat behind him, Calum behind Ashton. Due to their false beliefs about Luke and Ashton’s feelings for each other, they thought that this seating arrangement would be safest. They also kept the conversation fun and lighthearted, while Michael’s moody pop-punk music played from his phone hooked up to the AUX cord.

Luke only pretended to pay attention to the conversation. Mostly, he kept his eyes on Ashton’s profile until it was engraved in his memory. He wanted so badly for Ashton to look at him, even for just a split second. But even more than that, he wanted to switch places with Michael so that he could hold Ashton’s hand while he drove, and Luke would lean over to kiss his neck and cheek…

 _Jesus fucking Christ_ , Luke thought. Was it possible to be addicted to another person?

The bar ended up being more crowded than it usually was, but they were still able to find a clean table up against a wall. Michael took a seat first and Calum naturally went for the chair next to his alpha, only to do the math in his head and realize that if he sat there, Luke and Ashton would have no choice but to sit next to each other on the other side of the table. Then, he nudged Michael in the side and the two of them had a wordless conversation with their eyes, involving many facial expressions that mostly consisted of annoyance on Michael’s part.

Luke thought it was ridiculous, how they were willing to go to such lengths just to minimize the discomfort and tension between him and Ashton. It almost made Luke want to raise his arms in the air and shout, _Ashton and I had sex!_

When all was settled, Luke sat next to Michael, who said across from Calum, who sat next to Ashton, who sat across from Luke. To be honest, this new seating arrangement was entirely pointless and not just because there wasn’t actually any hatred between them anymore. It was pointless because even if they had hated each other, they were still sitting across from each other. Luke seriously wanted to laugh at his friends’ failed plan, and he almost did, until he felt a foot nudging his beneath the table.

Ashton was playing footsie with him.

Luke’s gaze slowly lifted from the table until he was staring at Ashton’s face. Ashton was pretending to be looking elsewhere in the bar, his chin resting on his palm and a bored expression on his face. But he knew exactly what he was doing, and so did Luke. Feeling a bit cheeky, Luke gradually raised his own leg and let his foot trail all the way up Ashton’s leg, until he was rubbing it against Ashton’s thigh. Ashton still didn’t look at him, but the corner of his mouth curved up to reveal that he was smiling.

“One of us still has to go and get the drinks,” Calum pointed out.

They’d been so focused on finding a table that they forgot entirely about the most important element of their night: alcohol.

Michael raised his hand and said, “You’re right. I volunteer Luke!”

“What?” Luke frowned at him. “Why don’t you do it?”

“’Cause I’m not a waiter, I don’t have the same amount of balance as you do.”

“Okay, but Calum’s a waiter, too.”

“Yes, and Calum is tired because he works really hard. He deserves to be spoiled tonight.”

Calum beamed. “Aw, thanks babe.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “Then why don’t you spoil him?”

“Because I’m not a waiter! Jeez, Luke, are you even listening to yourself?”

“I’ll get the drinks,” Ashton announced, just before the petty argument got out of hand.

He stood up and headed towards the bar without further confirmation. Luke watched him go before realizing that the feeling he felt in his stomach was a sense of longing, because Ashton wasn’t close to him anymore and Luke couldn’t pick up his unique scent from this distance. He didn’t know how long it would take for Ashton to come back to him, but he didn’t care to find out.

“I’ll go and help him,” Luke blurted. He had stood up so abruptly that his chair scraped across the floor, and now Michael and Calum were looking at him as if he’d grown a second head. Luke wasn’t the greatest liar, but he tried to sound casual when he said, “Y’know, don’t want him to drop anything.”

It was a stupid lie because Ashton was a waiter too, and no skilled waiter would drop a few measly drinks. Regardless of that fact, Luke left the table before they could say anything about it. He marched straight over to the bar and circled it until he found Ashton, then easily slid into the space next to him.

“Took you long enough,” Ashton said.

“Didn’t know you were waiting for me,” Luke replied. “Would’ve come sooner if I did.”

Ashton turned to him with a warm smile that made Luke go a little weak in the knees. He looked over his shoulder to make sure that their table wasn’t in view, and then leaned in close enough to feel the heat from Ashton’s body seeping into his skin. From this close, he could hardly smell the alcohol and the people who occupied the joint; all that he could smell was Ashton, and that’s exactly what Luke wanted above all else.

“You’re really good at pretending,” he said, just loud enough for Ashton’s ears only. “What’s your strategy?”

Ashton gave a nonchalant shrug. “Let’s just say I’ve had a lot of practice. Maybe you should take notes.”

The cheekiness in that statement had Luke grinning from ear to ear. He very much enjoyed this mysterious side to Ashton that would occasionally resurface. It was just another piece to the puzzle that he planned to solve, no matter how long it took him to do it.

As for now, his eyes repeatedly glanced down to Ashton’s pink lips. He saw that Ashton’s eyes were doing the same to his, and Luke didn’t care how desperate he sounded when he spoke next.

“I want to kiss you. Like, really fucking badly.”

The subtle blush on Ashton’s cheeks deepened, but he didn’t look away.

“I know you do,” he said. “But you’ll just have to wait.”

As if on cue, the bartender delivered their drinks to them. Luke realized that they hadn’t told Ashton what to get for them, but he was pleased when he saw that this first batch was made up of entirely shot glasses. Well, aside from one of them, which was clearly a glass of sprite meant for Ashton.

The waiting had to be the worst part of Luke’s night. Back at the table, Michael and Calum grew louder and rowdier the more that they drank, and since it was incredibly amusing to Ashton, he kept presenting them with stupid things to argue about until they forgot what they were trying to say and ended up making out with each other instead.

Luke stopped drinking the heavy stuff after his first two shots, not wanting to get shitfaced and consequently leaving Ashton as the only sober one. It was partially because he didn’t want Ashton to feel alone as he babysat the three of them, but it was mostly because an intoxicated Luke said the stupidest shit. He didn’t want to wake up the next morning to learn that he’d proposed to Ashton seven consecutive times the night before, and wept on the floor of the bar in the fetal position when Ashton rejected him each time.

Not to say that something similar had happened to Luke already, but he liked to keep those memories in the darkest corner of his mind.

After what felt like ages, Michael finally announced that he wanted to shake his ass on the dancefloor and naturally, Calum followed him as he left their table. But instead of actually going to the dancefloor, Luke saw the moment that Michael took Calum’s hand and led him over to where the bathrooms were. They thought that they were being discreet, which was what made it so funny.

His friends’ nonsense quickly drifted to the back of his mind, because what this really meant was that Luke was finally alone with Ashton. No longer did they have to pretend to be indifferent to being in each other’s presence, which meant that now they could have some _real_ fun.

Ashton was clearly thinking the same exact thing. He stared back at Luke while Luke stared at him, daring him to make the first move, and Ashton took that dare without a second thought. He raised up his second glass of soda, gulped down the rest of it, and stood up from his chair.

“Follow,” he said, turning to walk towards the dancefloor.

Luke didn’t need to be told twice.

The dancefloor was a tight squeeze, which was both a good and a bad thing. It was a good thing because it meant that Luke had to stay as close as possible to Ashton to avoid losing him while they made their way through the crowd to find a nice spot to stop. But it was also a bad thing, because Ashton was a beautiful man and naturally he caught the eyes of a few alphas along the way. A couple of them made attempts at getting Ashton to notice them in return, usually by grinding up against his leg like a feral dog or by trying to grab his hips.

Luke had never been a violent guy, but in that moment, he thought of a whole lot of ways that he could dismember a person. It was lucky that he didn’t have to actually go through with any of it, since Ashton knew how to take care of himself. He simply smiled at the men who were more on the polite side, and gave the cold shoulder to those who were not.

When they came to a stop, Ashton reached behind himself and took Luke’s hands to place them on his hips. Then he gave no warning, no time for Luke to prepare himself before beginning to grind back against him. Meanwhile, Luke was suddenly clueless now that Ashton’s ass was rubbing against his crotch. He really didn’t know what to do in this situation, regardless of all the people he’d danced with at nightclubs and bars in the past. But he figured that he shouldn’t take the moment for granted, so he tightened his grip on Ashton’s hips and moved to the beat of the music.

If Luke’s parents could see him now, they would be dragging him to the nearest church despite the fact that his family had never been religious. It’s just that the way that they were dancing was so _raunchy_ , to the point that they may as well had been fucking on the dancefloor.

Ashton was a goddamn hurricane and Luke occasionally struggled to keep up with him, but that was the fun of it all. He enjoyed the feeling that he was always chasing Ashton, knowing that someday he’d finally be able to catch up. There was no doubt that that day would be life changing, but for now, Luke would take what he could get.

At some point, Ashton turned around so that they were facing each other while dirty dancing. Multiple times Luke was sure that Ashton was going to kiss him or nip his bottom lip or _something_ , but he always pulled away at the last moment to focus on other things, like the hands on his ass. Just when Luke thought that the teasing was becoming too much and he’d end up coming in his pants without even being kissed first, Ashton gripped him by the shoulders and leaned close to whisper in his ear.

“Say… remember when you left me to get myself off in the bathroom?”

The fresh memory was impossible not to recall. After all, it had only been 24 hours since then. Luke wondered where Ashton was going with this and what that had to do with anything that was happening _now_ , when Ashton pulled back all of a sudden and smiled at him. Well, it was more like a sneer.

“Karma is a bitch, isn’t it?”

Not even a second later, Ashton pushed Luke off of him. He spun around and escaped through the thick crowd of people, and Luke lost sight of him before his mind could even catch up with what had just happened a moment ago.

Had Ashton Irwin just led him on? Then proceeded to leave him on the dancefloor with a painful case of blue balls?

Did all of that _seriously just happen_?

It had just happened, and Luke felt like a complete fool for falling for it. Although to be fair, Ashton was dangerously enticing.

Luke wouldn’t let him get away with it, though. Even though he knew that he deserved this revenge, he wasn’t letting Ashton get off the hook _that_ easily. That was what led him off the dancefloor and in search of the little tease. If he was quick enough, he’d be able to spot Ashton before he got too far away.

It was not an easy task, that was for sure. Luke blamed it on the fact that Ashton wasn’t tall enough, and a lot of the men in the bar were even taller than Luke was. Trying to find someone who was as small and quick as Ashton seemed to be in this setting, was nearly impossible.

And so after ten minutes of circling the parameter and going from wall to wall, Luke finally spotted the sneaky bastard. Ashton was heading back over towards the dancefloor, only he kept to the outskirts in order to avoid being squished and getting lost. Luke was quick to follow. His long legs and motivation made him catch up in no time, and when he finally did, Ashton was standing in a corner and already facing him, grinning from ear to ear.

“Finally found you,” Luke said as he approached. Since Ashton was in a corner, it was easy to trap him there. All that Luke had to do was rest his hands against the walls on either side of Ashton’s head.

Ashton was still smiling. “You didn’t find me, though. I let you catch up because you were taking too long.”

“Then why’d you run away from me?”

“I didn’t run. I walked.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “You’re a smart ass.”

“Thanks. We sort of have that in common.”

“Well, I guess that I got what I deserved, huh?”

The arrogant look on Ashton’s face told him that he was correct. Luke could deal with it. What he couldn’t deal with was the fact that he still hadn’t kissed Ashton yet, not once within the entire night so far. He needed to change that and he needed to do it as soon as possible, so Luke inched forward until their lips were practically brushing against each other with every breath taken. When Ashton didn’t pull away, Luke finally kissed him.

Neither of them were shy about their desires. They kissed and licked and sucked on each other’s lips until they were swollen and red, a beautiful red to match some of the lights in the bar. Ashton had his hands in Luke’s hair, gripping the golden strands without mercy, while Luke was sure that he was probably leaving bruises on Ashton’s hips.

It was exactly what they wanted. Hell, it might’ve been even more than that.

“Mmm,” Ashton hummed in pleasure as Luke rocked against him. “Do that again.”

“What, this?” Luke did it with twice as much purpose that time around, smiling when Ashton gasped. “You like that?”

Ashton nodded and then lulled his head back against the wall. If being dry humped in a dark corner of a gay bar was making him feel this good, then there was no way that Luke was going to stop. He moved his hands so that they were now placed on Ashton’s ass, then he squeezed it as he thrust his hips forward at a slightly faster pace. Familiar tingles traveled all the way down his spine when Ashton moaned in his ear, and Luke knew that he was a goner.

He couldn’t help thinking about how there were other people around them. He doubted that any of those people were actually paying attention to them, but they were still there. He and Ashton were perfectly visible, yet they were getting each other off in a corner and no one was trying to stop them. There was something about it that made the situation three times as hot in Luke’s opinion, but maybe that was just because he might’ve had an exhibitionism kink.

When Luke felt that he was close, he buried his face in Ashton’s neck and let the pleasure overtake him. He could tell that Ashton was nearly there as well, because he was panting in Luke’s ear and tugging his hair so hard that it hurt. Luke enjoyed the pain, though. Maybe even more than he should have.

“ _Fuck_ , Ash,” he ended up gasping. “I—I’m coming…”

In that moment, Luke was positive that he heard Ashton whimper. Like, actually _whimper_. It was a distinct sound that he hadn’t been given the pleasure of hearing the other two times that they did sexual things together, and it was simultaneously cute and the hottest sound that he’d ever heard before. That was what eventually sent him over the edge and he shamelessly came in his tight jeans, his body trembling against Ashton’s while the same pleasure washed over him at the same time.

Luke was glad that his friends were pleasantly drunk, just so that he wouldn’t have to awkwardly explain why both he and Ashton had small wet spots in the front of their jeans.

***

As the days went by, meeting up with each other, fucking each other senseless, and then never acknowledging that it happened, became a thing.

By then, they had done it in so many places that Luke was starting to lose count. Aside from his kitchen, the employee bathroom at Le Chatelier’s, and in the corner of a gay bar, they’d also gotten each other off in the BMW, Luke’s shower, and even in the shadows of the back of the restaurant building, up against the hard wall. The latter location made Luke think that maybe this was getting out of hand, but it wasn’t like he’d do anything about it.

They’d also established a set of unspoken rules at some point. Firstly, no one else was to know about them, especially those that they worked with. That was pretty much a given. Secondly, they hardly ever acknowledged each other at work, either. It should’ve been easy enough since they’d been avoiding each other prior to whatever _this_ was now, but what made it difficult was that Luke was forced to watch Ashton from afar without being able to touch him. Instead, he settled for gentle touches whenever they passed each other, touches that no one else noticed because they were so brisk.

Despite that, what they did together was undeniably fun. Luke felt as if he was always looking forward to the things that Ashton planned to do to him next, to the ways that he would put those big hands to use. And Luke looked forward to having his own hands in Ashton’s hair, on his hips, and of course, around his cock as well.

But one night while they were working, Luke came to the conclusion that he still wanted _more_. He seemed to always want more, no matter what he was already receiving. He thought that it was very selfish of him, but if wanting Ashton in every way made him a selfish asshole, well then, Luke was exactly that.

That was what led him to approaching Ashton while the other man was on his break. As usual, Luke found Ashton sitting outside on one of the wooden benches with half a ham sandwich in his hand and his phone in the other, reading something on the brightly lit screen. Luke had to pause for a moment to appreciate how Ashton could pull off looking ridiculously beautiful while he wasn’t doing anything special. Maybe he was just beautiful for the fact that he existed, and he existed in a time and a place where Luke existed, too. The thought of it made Luke feel extremely lucky.

Ashton didn’t notice his presence until Luke sat down on the bench next to him, and he was trying to seem as casual as possible even though at that moment, he wanted nothing more than to see what it would be like for Ashton to ride him on this bench.

“What are you doing?” Ashton hissed under his breath. His eyes darted in every direction around them, making sure that no one was watching. But even if someone had been, they’d just see two employees having a casual conversation, so really, he was overreacting a bit.

“I came out here to ask you something,” Luke responded in his normal voice. He saw no need to whisper.

Ashton continued whispering anyway. “Can’t it wait until after closing? Someone could see us.”

“Yeah, I suppose it could wait.” Luke shrugged, indifferent. “But I don’t want to, so I’m telling you now.”

Since it was clear that he wasn’t going away any time soon, Ashton sighed before taking another bite of his sandwich. He locked his phone and shoved it into his pocket, then turned his body a little so that he was facing Luke instead of the cobblestone walkway. As he chewed, he arched his eyebrows to show that he was waiting for Luke to get on with it.

“I think we should go on a date.”

Thinking back on it, he probably should have waited for Ashton to swallow his food before casually stating that sentence. But he also hadn’t expected Ashton to react the way that he did, which was to choke on the food in his mouth until Luke patted him roughly on the back to help him swallow it completely. By the time that Ashton managed to stop coughing, Luke was having strong doubts that this had been a good idea after all.

“A… what?” He looked at Luke with wide eyes, and even in the moonlight, Luke could see the blush on his face.

“Um. A date. Y’know, like getting dinner together and stuff.”

“But why?”

“Well… why not?”

Ashton opened his mouth to answer that, but then quickly shut it again, appearing conflicted with himself. Luke really hadn’t anticipated this type of reaction, but he supposed that he shouldn’t have been too surprised. He knew that for whatever reason, Ashton was hesitant about doing anything that even implied something _more_. It was why after having sex, he never spent the night at Luke’s place. Not since that first time, anyway.

Speaking of that first time…

“Listen, I’m not asking you to marry me or anything like that. It would just be a simple date, kind of like the first one that we had.”

Ashton’s eyes immediately widened at those words, but then he frowned just as quickly.

“Wait, first date? Since when have we gone on a date before?”

“The first time that you came to my place, remember?”

“ _Pfft_ ,” he laughed, “that wasn’t a _date_ , though. That was just dinner and getting to know each other, or whatever you called it.”

“So my past self lied.” Luke shrugged again. “It was totally a date, even if I didn’t admit it until later. I mean, come on, that was why you dressed all nice and I made you a delicious dinner. Hell, we even had s—”

“Okay, okay!” Ashton interrupted before Luke could finish that sentence. Again, he looked around for prying eyes. “Fine, yes, it was a date. I never even agreed to going on a date with you before, but fine.”

Luke nudged him in the side and waited until Ashton looked at him before grinning.

“Well hey, you can always agree to one now. Go on a date with me, Ash. I promise I’ll make it worthwhile.”

Even though Luke was smiling, it was only to hide the bundle of nerves in the pit of his gut that threatened to make him sick. He knew that if Ashton said no, then that was that. He’d back off and never mention it again, because even though he had developed feelings for the other man, he didn’t want to ruin what they already had. No matter if it hurt that he’d always want more.

After a moment of silence that lasted too long for Luke’s liking, Ashton finally nodded his head.

“Alright. I-I guess it couldn’t hurt. A date with you, I mean. Um, when would it be? And where would we go?”

Because Luke was absolutely _beaming_ on the inside at this point, he had to fight to hide his smile and answer the questions.

“I’ll text you when I find out? Just leave all the planning to me.”

Ashton nodded a second time. “Okay. That sounds good.”

He smiled at Luke then, a smile that was so bashful and unlike himself that Luke briefly wondered if he was talking to the wrong person and this was just a look-a-like. But maybe this was a part of Ashton that Luke hadn’t gotten the chance to know yet, and now he desperately wanted to.

Ashton gasped all of a sudden and looked at his wristwatch. He silently cursed under his breath, most likely realizing that his break was over now, and so the conversation must come to an end. He looked at the half of sandwich in his hand that he’d bitten just once, then shoved it into Luke’s hands for him to take instead.

Luke watched Ashton quickly go back into the restaurant, amused and holding a piece of ham sandwich. He was so happy with himself that when he took a bite and found that there was some sort of strange sauce on it that left a weird taste on his tongue, he didn’t even mind.

As a matter of fact, Luke ate the whole thing.

***

Ashton ended up cancelling their date, though not without good reason.

The night before it was supposed to happen, he called into work and explained that he wouldn’t be able to show up because of an “illness.” When Chuck continued to badger him, asking if he could specify this “illness” and if he would bring a doctor’s note when he was well enough to come back, Ashton angrily shouted into the phone that he was in _heat,_ goddammit!

After that, Chuck stopped asking about a doctor’s note.

Luke only knew this because he had texted Ashton before the start of his shift and asked where he was, because Luke was worried about him and he was allowed to be worried about his… whatever they were to each other at that point. But even though he was disappointed that their date had to be cancelled, since Ashton said that the suppressants he’d taken wouldn’t start properly working until a day or two later, Luke couldn’t help his imagination from running a little wild.

Ashton was in heat right now, which meant a whole lot of things. So for the entire night, Luke fantasized about what it would be like to spend Ashton’s heat with him. He imagined pleasuring Ashton over and over again to satisfy his cravings and the hormones that caused them. He imagined spoiling Ashton, massaging his entire body one area at a time, until Ashton had stopped aching and fell asleep. Most of all, Luke imagined what it would have been like to be engulfed in that strong omega scent that lasted for days.

To be honest, Luke had never spent a heat with anyone before. Part of it was because spending a heat with someone was serious business and not to be taken lightly. Okay, so it wasn’t as huge as asking for a person’s hand in marriage and bonding with them for life, no, definitely not. But it _was_ much bigger than, say, being asked to prom by the person that you’d had a crush on for the longest time.

But overall, it was mainly because Luke’s sexual preferences used to be in favor of other alphas, because he enjoyed being with dominant people and he liked the way that the power dynamics played into sex. Not to say that betas and omegas couldn’t be dominant, but they rarely were because of the way that biology worked.

According to conservatives, traditionalists, and the closed-minded, that made Luke one of the weird ones. In their minds they thought, why would an alpha be interested in another alpha, someone who wouldn’t be entirely submissive to his needs? Honestly, Luke wanted to look those conservatives in the eyes and tell them that, hey, he liked a challenge when it came to fucking or _being_ fucked.

So far, Ashton had been the greatest challenge yet. Nothing that he did or said ever failed to surprise Luke, and that was what made him so intriguing and desirable. He had Luke wrapped around his finger and Luke wanted so badly to take care of him while he was in heat, but maybe if he was patient and continued to develop their odd relationship, he’d be able to do exactly that someday.

By the time that the end of the night had arrived and they were allowed to go home, Luke was missing Ashton an awful lot. He figured that even if he wouldn’t be able to see Ashton for a couple of days, he could at least do something nice for him.

“Hey, Oliver!” Luke called out, just before the young beta had made his way through the door. “Can you come here for a sec?”

Surprised to have been singled out but very curious, Oliver quickly nodded his head and jogged back over to where Luke stood. He was a lot shorter than Luke, which was kind of funny because Luke was sure that he was at least a year older, but he had a really young looking face and the habits of a teenager, to be honest. But he was a hardworking waiter, even if he was a bit clumsy at times, and he also happened to be one of the very few staff members who didn’t gossip about everything, so Luke trusted him with this very important task.

“You live nearby Ashton, right?”

Oliver nodded again, a big smile on his face. “Oh, yeah! I do! He’s only, like, two minutes away from me. What’s up?”

“That’s perfect. Because…” Luke lifted up the paper bag that he was holding. On the outside was the Le Chatelier’s logo in beautiful cursive while the inside contained a plastic container of several desserts, compliments of bakery chef Harry. “Can you deliver these to him for me? And um, just tell him that they’re from a friend.”

Oliver nodded for the third time and took the bag from him. He didn’t even take a second to glance inside of it, and that’s when Luke knew that he’d chosen the perfect person for the job.

“Okay, yeah! No problem!”

Then he turned around and quickly made for the exit, while Luke was already daydreaming about the look on Ashton’s face when he would open the bag and find the little note that Luke had included with the desserts, wishing for him to get better soon.

Two days later, Ashton showed up to work looking the same as he always did, which was unbelievably stunning in Luke’s eyes. The only difference was that Luke could smell the remnants of his heat that had been stifled by the suppressants that he’d taken to limit the effect of his hormones on his body, and that meant that he smelled even better than usual, too.

He didn’t really look at Luke, though. Whenever he did, he would blush a deep shade of pink and look away. It was strange and a little unwavering, so when Luke had the chance to approach him during their shift—he made sure that no one else was paying attention—he leaned over and asked:

“How did you like the desserts?”

For a moment, Luke swore that Ashton’s entire body shivered. He still didn’t look at Luke when he spoke, but he sounded genuinely grateful.

“They were very… sweet. Thank you.”

He walked away to get back to work after that, leaving Luke a little confused and unsure of how he should’ve felt right then.

However, it all seemed to work out in Luke’s favor by the end of the night. Ashton approached him as he was wiping down a table, and it came as a surprise because he’d always taken great care not to intentionally approach Luke while they were at work. But it seemed that this time, Ashton didn’t care who might’ve looked in their direction.

“So,” he started, but said nothing else.

“So,” Luke replied. He stood up straight and turned to face Ashton, giving him his full attention.

“I guess I kind of ruined our date,” Ashton said around a laugh that was forced. Luke’s immediate instinct was to tell him that, no, he didn’t ruin anything because he could never ruin anything. Ashton was perfect and it was not his fault that his body betrayed him. But before Luke could say any of these things, Ashton went on to say, “But, um, I’d really like to make it up to you? That is, if you still wanna go out…”

“Yes,” came Luke’s immediate response. He didn’t try to hide his excitement. “I mean, _of course_. What did you have in mind?”

Ashton looked genuinely relieved, as if he seriously thought that Luke no longer wanted to go on dates with him. Honestly, Luke couldn’t understand how someone so clever could be so oblivious when it came to how others felt about him.

At least he began to smile.

“Great! ‘Cause my roommate is having a show tomorrow night and since I was already going, I figured you could come with me?”

“Sure, I’d love to! That sounds awesome.”

Luke had no idea what he was agreeing to, but he was nodding and smiling and so damn _happy_. The best part was that Ashton seemed really happy as well, because he was still smiling at Luke as he walked backwards to finish cleaning the tables near his section.

“Cool, I’ll text you the details?”

“Can’t wait,” Luke said, and he meant it.

***

Luke was so thrilled about going to see Ashton that he probably resembled an overexcited puppy. In fact, he was so happy that he gave Lewi not one, not two, but _three_ kisses on the head before leaving the apartment for the evening. He didn’t even bother to skip the songs that he didn’t like while his phone played on shuffle throughout the BMW, because nothing could have ruined his mood in that moment.

The venue that Ashton’s roommate, Dylan, and his band had secured wasn’t too far away from where Luke lived, but he left home early just so that he’d be able to see Ashton sooner than he was meant to. If that meant that Luke was desperate, then he proudly held that title close to his heart.

When Luke finally arrived at the right location, he went for the nearest parking space and made sure not to scuff his brand new boots as he got out of the car. He felt like an absolute douche bag for wearing sunglasses at night, but they went so well with his stylish outfit that he couldn’t resist. Still, it was hard to fucking see anything with them on, so he took the sunglasses and placed them on his neck instead. Now he looked even _cooler_.

Since Luke had been invited as a special guest, he entered the venue through a door located in the side of the building, according to Ashton’s very specific directions. The place was pretty small on the outside, but once inside, an old staircase led him downstairs to some sort of underground basement. There were a few people walking around in the large open space, mainly technicians making sure that everything was set up properly, and then there was a small stage at the far end of the room.

Ashton was sitting on the edge of the stage. He was wearing the usual black skinny jeans and a grey sweater that looked nice and fuzzy on his smaller frame. But Luke’s favorite detail was that he had on his black-frame glasses again, which he rarely ever wore. It was a shame, too, because they made him look twice as edible.

As if able to sense Luke’s presence, Ashton glanced up from the expensive looking camera in his hands and smiled so big that Luke’s heart skipped several beats. Ashton proceeded to wave him over, so Luke forced his legs to work in order to obey.

“Hey!” he said, sounding more cheerful than Luke has probably ever heard him sound before. “I’m really glad you could make it tonight.”

Luke rolled his eyes, but in a fond way. “Please. You say that as if I haven’t been looking forward to this for the past day.”

Because life wasn’t finished torturing Luke enough, Ashton giggled, and it was beautiful.

“Come with me,” he said. “I’ll introduce you to the guys.”

Luke guessed that “the guys” meant Dylan and his bandmates, and he was proven correct when Ashton led him backstage to a small dressing room where four half-dressed young men were lounging around on an old couch and debating about _The Lion King_. It wasn’t the most random scene that Luke had walked in on, but it was probably in the top ten.

He instantly noted that all of them were betas, except for one, who was an alpha. And speaking of the alpha, he was rather good-looking; he had burgundy dyed curly hair and an undercut, cheekbones so sharp that they could act as a knife, a nose piercing, and he was skillfully twirling a drumstick in his hand without dropping it. Obviously that meant he was probably the drummer of the band.

Luke just hoped that he wasn’t Dylan, because he really didn’t need unbeatable competition right now.

Ashton didn’t have to announce their presence, since all eyes turned to them a few seconds after they entered the room. The guy with the long brown hair and eyebrow piercing jumped over the back of the couch and approached them as if he’d been excitedly waiting for this exact moment.

“Yo!” he said to Luke, but he draped an arm over Ashton’s shoulder and pulled him close to mess up his hair, ignoring Ashton’s protests.

Of course, the one thing that Luke paid attention to was the fact that he was a little bit shorter than Ashton, but somehow Ashton still looked smaller. Maybe it was the cute, oversized sweater that he was wearing.   

“This is my lame roommate, Dylan,” Ashton announced once he had managed to escape the other’s grasp. Luke let out a sigh of relief, glad that this was Dylan and not the drummer. Though he should’ve been able to guess, since there was no way that Ashton would share a living space with an alpha who wasn’t his own. Ashton looked to Dylan and said, “Dyl, this is my—um. Luke.”

The blatant slip-up had both of them frozen. It probably would’ve made for a very awkward moment if not for Dylan’s easy laughter that quickly broke the ice between the two of them. He held out his hand for Luke to shake and said:

“Nice to meet you, Ashton’s Luke!”

Luke blushed deeply at the teasing but shook Dylan’s hand anyway, while Ashton covered his face with one hand and shook his head, beyond embarrassed and unable to be saved. Luke had the urge to reach out and give him a hug, but it probably would have resulted in even more teasing so he restrained himself.

Dylan pointed to each of his bandmates. “That’s Chad, Spencer, and Richie Rich. But you can just call him Dick, since he kind of is one.”

The alpha— _Dick_ —flipped Dylan off but without any actual anger behind it, and then he gave a friendly wave to Luke. With introductions out of the way, they immediately returned to their intense yet silly debate regarding _The Lion King_ that had to do with why Simba should’ve stayed in the jungle with his two gay dads. It was rather interesting, to say the least. But when he and Ashton joined the others on the couch, Luke paid less attention to the actual conversation and more attention to the way that Ashton interacted with his friends.

It quickly became apparent that the Ashton who worked at Le Chatelier’s and the Ashton that Luke knew when they were alone together, were vastly different from the Ashton who was surrounded by close friends that he loved dearly. For instance, whereas he was witty and flirtatious when joking around with Luke, he transformed into the “dad friend” when he was around Dylan and the guys. He made lame joke after lame joke, mostly consisting of puns, and when it was time for the band to get ready for the show, Ashton made sure to remind them to drink lots of water before going up on stage and repeatedly said how proud he was of them.

All in all, Ashton was a goddamn nerd and Luke had finally gotten the chance to witness it with his own eyes.

As he and Ashton left the dressing room, Ashton turned to him with wide, excited eyes and dimples on his cheeks from how big he was smiling.

“Are you excited? We get to be in the front row,” he said.

Luke smiled back at him. “Because you’re best friends with the band so you have special privileges?”

“No, silly!” Ashton lifted the camera still hanging from his neck. “It’s because I’m the band’s photographer. Duh.”

Luke really hadn’t expected that plot twist. He wasn’t given a chance to ask Ashton any of the thousands of questions running through his mind right then, because Ashton began to make his way to the stage.

If he had to guess, Luke would say that there were currently about a hundred people waiting to see the band perform, give or take. The crowd had a very hipster-ish feel to it, which gave Luke an idea of what genre the band made music under. And as many times as Luke was sure that he heard Ashton say it, he couldn’t, for the life of him, remember their actual band name. Silver Fish? Gold Fishing? It definitely had something to do with fish, that was for sure.

Just before the show began, Luke stood close to Ashton and watched him play with his camera. Finally the room went dark and various people in the crowd began to holler and cheer, and that was when the lead singer Chad came out and introduced the band as Swallow the Goldfish.

Damn, Luke had been close.

But regardless of the silly name, they were actually pretty damn talented. Luke really enjoyed one song in particular that he’d have to ask Ashton for the name of later on. For now, he enjoyed the free live show that he’d been invited to and came to the decision that he really liked Dylan and the gang. He could only hope that they liked him in return.

After the show, they hung around with the band backstage until the guys announced that they were going out for drinks like they always did after a gig. Luke probably would have gone along with them, but Ashton pointed out that they had work again the next day and it wouldn’t be fun to deal with a possible hangover any time before then. So, Luke was quick to agree.

That was how he ended up driving Ashton back to his and Dylan’s apartment for the night. They spent the entire car ride talking about the show and Ashton kept repeating that someday they’d go far, they’d get big and become twice as successful as they’d ever dared to dream. It was so ridiculously _cute_ , seeing Ashton all fired up like this, and Luke couldn’t help agreeing with every word.

“The pictures that I took came out really nice, too,” Ashton was saying as they pulled up to the apartment complex. “Oh! Especially the one I got of Dylan doing that big jump that he did. Oh man, he’s gonna flip when he sees this.”

Curious, Luke asked, “Can I see them?”

Ashton seemed to hesitate for the briefest moment before he handed the camera over. He was silent as Luke looked at each picture he’d taken, perhaps waiting to be judged. And well, Luke didn’t know much about photography in general, but he knew in his heart that these were some damn good photos. So, he said as much.

“Wow, Ash… these are amazing!” Luke gasped in awe at a particularly nice picture of Dick. “Like, the angles and the lightning—okay, don’t laugh at me because I don’t know what terms to use—but shit, you could totally sell these, you know?”

Because he’d never stop being cute, Ashton blushed at the compliments and a shy smile slowly spread on his face.

“You think so?”

“Yeah, I—” Luke paused when he saw that the next picture was surprisingly of himself. It was taken from the side and he was smiling at the band performing in front of him, his eyes so bright that he almost wondered if it were someone else. He muttered, “Oh. That’s me.”

When he turned his head to ask Ashton for an explanation, Ashton’s eyes were wide and it became obvious that he hadn’t meant for Luke to see that particular photo. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have looked like he wanted to hide in this moment.

Instead of admitting anything outright, Ashton cleared his throat and shrugged as nonchalantly as he could manage.

“Yeah, well—you got in the way.”

Seriously? Luke wasn’t an idiot and he didn’t believe that for a single second. But he didn’t want to call Ashton out and be the cause of his spontaneous combustion, so he simply hummed and went to the next picture.

Which was also of himself.

“And what about this one?” Luke asked, a wicked grin forming already because he couldn’t help himself.

Ashton made it obvious when he refused to meet Luke’s eyes.

“Okay, so you got in the way more than once. You really should be mindful of your surroundings, Luke Hemmings.”

As it turned out, Luke got in the way a total of six times, but hey, he wasn’t complaining. Ashton clearly found his appearance pleasing enough to take high quality pictures of him, when he was actually supposed to be capturing the band and nothing else. While it definitely stroked Luke’s ego, it also made him feel very warm inside.

He gave the camera back to Ashton.

“Well, I think that this might be my new favorite thing about you.”

Ashton furrowed his brows. “New favorite? Then… what was your old favorite?”

Now that Luke was in the spotlight and at the risk of being embarrassed, he suddenly didn’t feel like sharing anymore. So he laughed and shook his head, saying that it was nothing, but Ashton kept insisting and Luke knew that he wouldn’t give up easily.

“It’s really corny, but…” Luke huffed out another laugh. “You already know, anyway.”

“No, I don’t think I do. Tell me.”

There was no escaping this. Deciding to just give in at last, Luke turned his head and gazed into Ashton’s eyes for a moment. Softly, he said:

“Hazel?”

“Oh…” Ashton blinked several times as the memory came back to him. “My eyes. Heh, I thought that you’d been joking.”

Luke shrugged. “I was, at the time. But… that was then and this is now.”

To show what he meant by that, Luke reached over and took Ashton’s hand into his own. Ashton said nothing as Luke caressed his knuckles with his thumb; all that he did was watch with those beautiful eyes of his, and just from this little bit of physical contact, Luke could feel him gradually relaxing.

They sat in comfortable silence for a minute or two. Luke couldn’t believe how satisfying it was to him, to just sit there in the car with Ashton and not have to say anything at all. It was a nice contrast from what they’d been doing with each other up until this point, which was purely sex based. And as much as Luke loved having Ashton’s hands on him and vice versa, what they were choosing to do now was just as satisfying in its own unique way.

“I…” Ashton spoke up suddenly. Luke gave him his full attention. A few seconds passed, but eventually, Ashton smiled and squeezed Luke’s hand before letting go. He said quietly, “I guess I better go to bed.”

Luke realized then that he didn’t want that. He wanted to sit in this car with Ashton forever and not have to think about anything else, _anyone_ else, for all of eternity. But that was impossible, and it always would be impossible no matter how much he wished for it.

And so nodding his head, he replied, “Y-Yeah. Me too.”

“This was really fun, by the way. I'm really glad you came to the show.”

“Hey, it was nothing. I'm happy that you invited me.”

They smiled at each other for two seconds too long for it to mean nothing more than politeness. But Ashton grabbed the handle of the car door and opened it anyway, a soft breeze flowing into the car and breaking the timeless spell.

“Goodnight, Luke.”

“Night.”

Once Ashton shut the door behind him, Luke exhaled the deepest of sighs. Now all that was left was to go back to his lonely apartment, maybe take another shower if he was feeling it, and then cuddle with Lewi until the both of them fell asleep. Yeah, that sounded like the perfect plan—

The passenger door was suddenly wrenched open. The only reason that Luke didn’t jump into panic mode because, _oh shit_ , someone was about to rob him for his stupidly expensive car, was because he felt inside of himself that it was just Ashton even before he saw that, yes, it really was Ashton.

Which made zero sense, until Ashton leaned across the seat and grabbed Luke’s face with both hands, then kissed him as if he’d been starving for his lips for the past few _decades_. It was all at once passionate and electrifying, their lips moving together automatically but with purpose. There was no way to accurately describe just how intense it felt, to be kissed in a way that made all other feelings seem obsolete.

When Ashton broke the kiss several seconds later, he was breathing hard against Luke’s already swollen mouth and staring into his eyes like he never wanted to look anywhere else. Luke knew this because it was exactly what he felt, right then.

This time neither of them said anything as Ashton climbed out of the car for the second time that night and walked up the pathway to his apartment building, but only because they hadn’t needed to say anything at all.

***

“He’s not gonna win.”

“What? Sure he will, I believe in him.”

“Don’t, ‘cause he’s gonna lose.”

Luke gasped, offended, and playfully thumped Ashton on the head with the twizzler in his hand. But it was all for nothing, since Ashton merely laughed and took another bite of his own candy. Luke really wanted to kiss him in that moment, but they’d done a lot of that already when they were jerking each other off about half an hour ago. Now they were cuddling on Luke’s couch and watching _Chopped_ on Netflix, eating twizzlers and making random guesses about which contestants would win.

When the host finally announced who would be going home, Luke’s jaw dropped when it turned out that Ashton had been right.

“Told ya,” Ashton said in a sing-song voice, just to be a tease.

Luke narrowed his eyes. “Cheater. You’ve seen this episode before, haven’t you?”

“Nope, it was just obvious that she would win and he would lose.”

“How? The judges said that her dessert was _disgusting_.”

“They were still able to taste it, though. That’s what got the guy eliminated in the end. They couldn’t taste his dish because he cut his finger and got blood everywhere, which… _ew_.” Ashton made a disgusted face for emphasis. “Anyway, you should know this already, Huke Lemmings. You work in a restaurant, don’t you?”

Luke had had enough of the sass. He took the opportunity of stealing the remainder of the twizzler from Ashton’s fingers, then shoved it into his own mouth before Ashton had the chance to steal it back. Of course Ashton whined about it, and he got revenge by pinching Luke’s nipple without remorse. After that, Luke decided not to tease Ashton again unless he had adequate chest protection.

Ever since Luke had gone with Ashton to watch Dylan’s band perform about a week and a half ago, the two of them had begun routinely doing things like that together. Their hangouts consisted of only casual outings like trips to the mall and getting dinner together, or spending time at Luke’s place and watching Netflix in their underwear, but it was still really nice. Luke honestly didn’t care what they did, he just wanted to be with Ashton whenever he could outside of work.

“Wanna watch another episode?” Luke offered once the credits began to roll.

“Nah, we should watch…” Ashton hummed as he thought for a moment, then said, “Your dad’s show.”

Luke pretended not to understand what that meant, so he continued flipping through the list of cooking shows with a straight face.

“Never heard of it. Hey, what about _Cupcake Wars_? Or would that just make you crave cupcakes, because same.”

“Don’t try to change the subject.” Ashton lifted his head from Luke’s chest and sat up so that he was straddling Luke’s hips now. He idly drummed his fingers on Luke’s stomach as he spoke. “Come on, I just wanna see it. Just, like, one episode. Okay, half an episode. The first five minutes? _S'il vous plaît_ , Lukey?”

How dirty of him to use French _and_ that nickname when he knew what they did to Luke. But Luke was a lot stronger than he looked, okay, his willpower had drove him to do many great things in the past. Now he would use that same willpower to keep this thing from happening.

“I don’t _wanna_ ,” he whined, because Luke was also a petulant child. “Besides, I don’t think it’s even on Netflix. If it is, it’s only on the Australian one so you’re shit out of luck, okay.”

Ashton began to pout. “Why don’t you like your dad’s show? I mean, you don’t have to tell me, but if I had a dad with his own cooking show or even just a show in general, I’d probably be bragging nonstop. Like, imagine if your dad was someone like Emeril Lagasse? You can’t tell me you wouldn’t use that to bring all the hot guys to your yard.”

Luke found himself laughing at the stupid reference, and from the look on Ashton’s face, Luke could tell that he was pleased.

“It’s not that I _dislike_ my dad’s show or any of the stuff he’s done,” Luke began to explain. But it was hard to find the right words to express his complex emotions, so he sighed and gave a shrug. “I don’t know, it’s just kind of weird watching his TV persona when I already know the real him? Plus, we just had sex a little while ago. The last thing I’d want to do is see my dad’s face on TV after I just got laid, and imagine him silently judging me.”

That time Ashton was the one to laugh, and Luke laughed with him because he honestly couldn’t think of a more awkward scenario.

“Okay, okay, I guess I can understand that.” Ashton shifted from his current position until he was lying comfortably on top of Luke again, his nose resting against Luke’s collarbone. He asked quietly, softly, and content: “What should we watch, then?”

Before Luke could suggest some of his favorites, Lewi appeared from around the couch with a stray sock in between his teeth. He came over and dropped it on the floor in front of Luke and then meowed, as if announcing his “great catch.” It was highly adorable.

Ashton didn’t seem to think so.

“Go away, cat,” he grumbled, clinging to Luke just a bit tighter. “He’s mine right now, so deal with it.”

Lewi meowed twice in a row, louder this time, so that it almost sounded like he was telling Ashton to fuck off. Ashton seemed to think so too, because he sneered down at the cat and hid his face in Luke’s neck, thinking that the cat would go away if he ignored him.

“Hey now, don’t be mean to each other,” Luke said, chastising their petty behavior. “There’s plenty of me to go around.”

“But he started it,” Ashton insisted.

Luke rolled his eyes. “Ashton, he’s a _cat_. He can’t really start anything. And to be honest, I’m starting to think you really do hate him.”

“False. I already told you that I’m allergic and that makes me wary.”

“Okay, then why do you never sneeze when you come over? Even now you’re lying on the same couch that Lewi naps on daily.”

When Ashton struggled to come up with an immediate reply to that, Luke had to try not to laugh at him and his obvious jealousy.

“You make a good argument,” Ashton finally admitted. “So my theory is, maybe it’s because his fur isn’t that long.”

“Mhm, sure. Whatever you say, Ash.”

“Don’t make me pinch you again.”

“Fine, fine,” Luke laughed. “I’ll stop.”

After a brief debate on what they should watch next, they eventually settled on _The Great British Bake Off_ since Ashton had never seen it before. Since it wasn’t as dramatic as _Chopped_ nor were the judges complete assholes to the contestants, Luke noticed that Ashton was barely paying attention to the television screen by the end of the episode. He was currently playing with Luke’s necklace, which was really just a silver key hanging from a thin chain. In fact, he was so distracted that he didn’t even notice when Lewi hopped up on the couch to rest near their feet.

Eventually, Ashton asked him, “What’s this key for?”

Because Luke never missed a chance to be cheeky, he replied, “Why, it’s the key to my heart, of course.”

Ashton pinched his nipple again.

“Okay, jeez. It’s actually the spare key to the front door. I wear it as a necklace because I guess you can say I have a habit of losing things? But this ensures that I’ll never again be locked out of my own home on accident.”

Ashton snorted. “Again? So it’s happened before. God, you’re such a dork.”

Just as Luke was about to argue that he was certainly _not_ a dork because _Ashton_ was the dork in this duo, he was interrupted by a phone ringing from somewhere on the floor. Since it wasn’t Luke’s phone, which was left on the coffee table, it obviously meant that it was Ashton’s problem to deal with. As a result, Ashton whined dramatically and forced himself to leave his comfortable place on top of Luke to retrieve the cellphone from his jeans that had been discarded on the floor.

“What?” he continued whine as he answered the phone, and Luke smiled because his grumpiness was too endearing. Sadly, Ashton’s expression shifted from annoyance to seriousness as he listened to what the mystery person was saying to him. “Oh, shit. Sorry, I forgot all about it—yeah, yeah, I’ll be right there.”

Luke was already frowning even before Ashton hung up, because he’d heard enough to know that their time together was coming to an end. Even though he knew that he’d still see Ashton the very next day, it still made him sad to see him go.

“I have to bring the car to Dylan,” Ashton announced as soon as he got off the phone. He picked up his abandoned skinny jeans and began to slide them on as he spoke. “Totally slipped my mind that the band needed it tonight.”

Feeling a little desperate for Ashton to stay, Luke asked, “But don’t they have other cars? Why do they need the one that you and Dylan share?”

Ashton shrugged. “Two of them do, but one is complete shit and breaks down all the time while the other one can’t fit all of the instruments in the trunk, so.” After pulling on his shirt, he teasingly smirked at Luke. “Hey, not all of us have rich daddies and BMW’s, babe.”

Well, Luke certainly couldn’t argue with that. He also didn’t want to accidentally offend Ashton because of his ignorance and inability to relate to their situation, so he kept his mouth shut and watched as Ashton gathered his things.

“Will you be able to come back later tonight?” he asked, just in case.

Ashton briefly glanced up from tying his shoelaces, surprised, and then he giggled.

“Aw. Are you really gonna miss me that much, Lukey?”

“No,” Luke scoffed, but then quickly changed his mind. “Okay, maybe. But you know, watching cooking shows with just Lewi here with me isn’t as fun because he can’t provide annoying commentary like you do. Plus, aside from Mike and Cal, you’re the only one who doesn’t call me Chris. That makes you likeable.”

Ashton laughed again. “And here I thought that you liked me because of my charming personality!”

“You wish.”

When he was finished with his shoes and made sure that he was leaving nothing behind, Ashton walked back over to where Luke was still sitting on the couch. Then, he bent over and leaned close enough to press his lips to Luke’s, kissing him sweetly and much gentler than he had earlier. His lips tasted like the strawberry candy that he’d eaten and Luke wondered if he could convince Ashton not to go, but he knew that he shouldn’t, so he didn’t.

“I’ll see about it,” Ashton whispered against Luke’s mouth. He kissed him once more before standing straight again. “Okay?”

Luke nodded. “Okay.”

Ashton was half way out of the front door when an idea suddenly came to Luke. He called out for Ashton to wait a second, then hopped up from the couch to go and meet him. When Luke caught up to him, he was standing in the doorway with his brows raised and most likely assuming that he really had forgotten something this time.

“Take this,” Luke told him, pulling the key necklace over his head. He held it out for Ashton to take. “Y’know, in case you do come back and I’m in the shower or something. You can use it to let yourself in. But if you don’t come back, then… well, you can just keep it for another time.”

Ashton stared at the key for a moment before shifting his gaze to Luke, then back down to the key. He had the deer caught in the headlights look on his face again, though Luke really couldn’t understand why. Had he unknowingly offended Ashton, anyway? He didn’t think so, because Ashton would’ve rolled his eyes and responded with something snarky, if that was the case.

“It’s—” Ashton started to say, but he paused to clear his throat. “It’s okay, you don’t have to do that, Luke...”

Luke gave him a warm smile. “Yeah, I know that. But I want to, so here. Take it.”

“But—I don’t—look, I really don’t think I should.”

“I… don’t get it. Why not?”

Ashton repeatedly opened and closed his mouth as he tried to formulate a reply, but ultimately found that he could not. Shaking his head, he refused to meet Luke’s eyes when he blurted out:

“I-I have to go. I’m sorry.”

He shut the door behind him before Luke had any time to react to his strange behavior.

***

Somehow it always came back to Ashton avoiding him, and Luke could never understand _why_.

After Ashton practically ran out of his apart that evening, Luke sent him a text message apologizing for whatever it was that he’d said wrong. He sent another text after that telling Ashton to drive safely and then wished him a goodnight. The third text was sent when Luke had been lying in bed, drowsy and lonely but a little anxious. That text had only said three words:

 _I miss you_.

As soon as the message had been sent, Luke wished he could take it back and cursed his phone for not having such an option. It didn’t really matter, though. The next morning, Luke woke up to zero replies to any of his messages. He was beginning to think that things might never work out between them, because he always managed to mess things up and Ashton was terrible at communicating when _feelings_ were involved.

It was a couple of hours before Luke needed to be at Le Chatelier’s when he decided that he needed help. He felt like he was close to exploding if he couldn’t talk to someone about this, so breaking all of the rules that he and Ashton had unofficially established, he went to his friends for help.

Michael was the one who had answered the door. He was only in a shirt and his underwear, and he was blinking against the sunlight as if he’d recently woken up from a nap. When he recognized the person on the other side of his door as Luke, the words that were probably about to come out of his mouth were likely to be _what the fuck_ , since Luke hadn’t announced his visit prior to showing up. But Luke hadn’t been thinking clearly, just like he wasn’t thinking now when he blurted out:

“I’ve been sleeping with Ashton for the past month.”

Michael continued to stare at him in bewilderment, only now his eyes were wider and he looked completely awake.

“What the fuck?” he muttered. And then, louder and with more emphasis, he repeated: “ _What the fuck_?”

Ten minutes later, Luke was sitting on the couch in his friends’ living room. Both Michael and Calum were standing up in front of him on the other side of the wooden coffee table, and Luke felt like a child who was about to be lectured by his parents or some shit like that. He had just finished telling them the story of how everything between him and Ashton began, starting with the dinner-totally-a-date and how they continued to sneak around together for no apparent reason. He ended the tale with the events of the night before and how Ashton had basically freaked out when Luke offered him the key to his apartment. When he was done, his friends stood there for a moment to process the whole thing.

Michael was the first to say something.

“Jesus _fuck_.”

He seemed to really like that word today.

“Let me get this straight,” Calum said afterwards, speaking slowly to gather his thoughts. “So you went from hating each other, to fucking each other while still kind of hating each other, and then fucking each other just because it was nice, and now you’ve asked him to move in with you?”

“Wait.” Luke blinked at him. “Most of that is pretty accurate, but how the _hell_ did you come to that conclusion? Nowhere in the past ten minutes did I mention asking him to move in with me.”

Calum arched a brow. “But you offered him the key to your apartment.”

“Yeah, so he could visit whenever he wanted to?”

Michael scoffed, “Which isn’t too far off from asking him to move in with you, dumb ass.”

“No, it _isn’t_.”

“Yes, it _is_!”

“Guys!” Calum shouted, willing them to shut up. He sighed with much exasperation as he walked around the coffee table and took a seat on the edge of it, still facing Luke. Now Luke really felt like a kid, because Calum had that expression on his face that people only got when they were trying to explain something very simple to an ignorant child. “Listen, Luke… I know that you probably didn’t see it as a big deal, offering something like that, but maybe Ashton saw it differently? And maybe it freaked him out, because like you said a moment ago, he always gets weird about anything that implies a serious relationship.”

“And giving someone the key to your home is pretty damn serious,” Michael added.

In that moment, Luke really did feel like a dumb ass.

“Shit,” he cursed, covering his face with both hands. “I really fucked this up, didn’t I?”

“Totally,” Michael replied, and then: “Ow!” because Calum had most likely thrown something at him.

“I don’t think so,” Calum said a moment later. “I mean, it was just a misunderstanding, right? All you have to do is wait for Ashton to chill the fuck out, and then talk to him about it, say you didn’t mean anything when you did that. When all’s said and done with, go back to just fucking each other or don’t. It’s that easy, really.”

“Um… I don’t know about that.” Luke dropped his hands from his face to look at his friend, smiling sadly. “See, I was kind of under the impression that we already _were_ serious—or at least getting there. Like, after all that we’ve done together so far, it just seemed natural.”

“Did you ever talk to him about it?”

“No…”

“Well, there’s your problem.”

“And that, my friend, is why communication is key!” Michael said, once again adding in his two cents.

But Luke knew that he was entirely right in this situation. He shouldn’t have made the assumption that he had, but at least now he could try to fix it. Luke also planned to tell Ashton exactly what he wanted out of their relationship, how he wanted to be with Ashton and take care of him. More specifically, how he wanted to form a bond.

God, he hoped that Ashton would eventually want the same thing.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Michael was saying suddenly, and he might’ve said something before that, but Luke had been too occupied with his own thoughts to listen. “You’re not the only one who sucks when it comes to these things. As a matter of fact, back when Cal and I were just friends—”

“Be quiet, Mike.”

“—he wrote me a song. Like, he actually sat there and wrote a song about me, but he was too scared to give it to me directly, so—”

“ _Michael_.”

“—he put it in my mailbox. But he also forgot to say who it was from, and I ended up thinking that the mailman wanted my dick!”

Calum tried to shove Michael away but ended up failing when the alpha jumped back just in time. Luke hadn’t meant to laugh at him, but it was far too cute to simply ignore. Who knew that a ten second story about his best friends in the past could make Luke feel that much better, even if he did still miss Ashton like crazy.

However, it managed to give him the courage that he needed to survive the night ahead.

***

If he was being honest with himself, Luke hadn’t expected Ashton to show up to work that night. But by the time that Luke had arrived at the restaurant with his friends, Ashton was there along with the other staff members. He looked the same as usual with his perfectly neat curls and uniform, but for the first time he wasn’t making small talk with anyone at all, not just Luke. Maybe he had other problems to deal with, problems that had nothing to do with Luke or their odd relationship. Luke thought it was very arrogant of himself to think that Ashton would be so affected by what had happened the previous night.

During their entire shift, Luke made sure to leave Ashton alone. He told himself that it would be best to wait until afterwards before having the talk that they obviously needed to have, so there was no reason to interrupt Ashton until then.

That didn’t mean that it wasn’t _torture_ to wait for the night to end, though, because it definitely was. Luke had to try extra hard just to be cheerful and polite when addressing those that he was serving, because all that he could think of was how Ashton would react to hearing that Luke wanted to be his mate. Not just his fuck buddy. And since it was quite a big deal, Luke tried not to be too optimistic. If Ashton didn’t want him that way, then he would deal with it and move on.

Of course, it was a lot easier said than done.

Luke couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there by the end of the night, but there was still cleanup to be done, so he chipped in without any complaints, as per usual. The only problem with not having his head in the right mindset was that he couldn’t pay attention to what he was doing, not after an entire night of forcing himself to focus on more important things. That was what led him to accidentally knocking over the little mop bucket in the middle of the floor as he walked by.

“Shit,” he cursed under his breath as he fell over the mess.

“Sorry!” said a voice from behind him, and suddenly Oliver was crouching next to him to pick up the bucket. “Aw, man, I’m really sorry, Chris. I mean, Luke. I mean—I shouldn’t have left that in the way, but I didn’t think anyone would fall over it. Sorry.”

Normally Luke would have instantly responded to Oliver’s nervous babbling with kind words of reassurance, but since tonight hadn’t been any ordinary night, half of those words went into one ear and out the other so he didn’t really know what had been said. Still, he made sure to smile politely as he stood up and offered a hand to Oliver to pull him up as well.

“No worries, it was my fault anyway. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“Are you sure? I feel really bad now. Should I go get some towels? Or refill the bucket first? Maybe I should—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Luke interrupted. He gave Oliver a pat on the shoulder for emphasis. “I’ll just go and get another mop from the supply closet to help you clean this up, alright? In the meantime, make sure no one else slips on the puddle or trips over the bucket.”

Oliver nodded as if he’d just been given the most important task in the world.

“Okay, yeah! I can do that.”

So Luke left him to it. As he fled the dining room and made his way to the supply closet, Luke thought that perhaps it’d been a good thing for him to trip over the bucket, because now he could escape for a short moment and let his thoughts take over.

For instance, Luke thought about what his life would’ve been like now if he and Ashton had been given the chance to develop their relationship normally. He thought of scenarios where they’d never had a feud between them and Ashton had caught his eye simply because Ashton was a beautiful person, inside and out. He thought of getting to know Ashton day by day and taking him on fun dates; courting him, essentially. Most of all, Luke thought of asking Ashton to be his mate, Ashton saying yes, and then the two of them forming a beautiful bond together that same night.

Things had not turned out that way. Who knew if they ever could have turned out that way, Luke obviously didn’t. But he liked to think that the final part, in this case forming a bond with Ashton someday, was still a possibility in his future. He didn’t care if it was near or far, he just needed it to become reality.

Luke stopped in front of the supply closet and let out a deep sigh that he’d needed to exhale hours ago. Even though cleanup never took too long, it still felt like he had years to go before he would be allowed to leave and confront Ashton. What was most tragic was that he’d had all this time to prepare, but he still didn’t know exactly what he’d say to the guy. Maybe his best bet would be to improvise.

A mysterious sound came from the end of the hallway. It pulled Luke from his depressing thoughts and he looked in the direction of the source, which was the manager’s office just a couple of doors down. His pulse jumped in surprise when the door to that room was suddenly snatched open with excess force, and Luke’s eyes widened when he saw who came out of it.

Ashton stood at the end of the hallway. It took him a second to realize that he wasn’t alone and Luke was staring at him, at which point he stared back. Luke couldn’t help noticing that he was teary-eyed and was using a hand to cover his mouth. Neither of them said anything, but just when Luke was about to, Ashton made a quick dash for the exit. He half-walked, half-jogged right past Luke before anything could be said, and then he was gone.

Luke considered following him, but then his eyes drifted back over to the manager’s office where Ashton had come out of. It didn’t take long at all for his brain to come up with a possible scenario: Ashton wrenching the door open, the unshed tears in his eyes, and the look of distress on his face. People rarely went into François’ office and came out happy, which could only mean one thing.

 _No,_ Luke instantly thought. He refused to believe it. There was no way that Ashton had just been _fired_ , right? Because that was what it had definitely looked like. Since there was only one way to find out, Luke quickly made his way over to the office room and didn’t bother to announce himself beforehand.

“Sir, I—”

Luke paused in his tracks. François was behind his desk as usual, only he wasn’t sitting in his fancy and comfortable chair. He stood facing the wall with his back turned to Luke, but Luke knew that the sound of a zipper and François’ hand movements was him zipping his pants back up. When he finally turned around to see who was disturbing him unannounced, Luke noticed that he didn’t look right, either. His normally perfectly slicked back hair was not so perfect at the moment, since a few strands of hair fell down into his unusually flushed face. His normally piercing blue eyes were noticeably glossed over, too.

“Ah, mister Hemmings,” he said in that sly tone that could make anyone’s skin crawl. “How can I help you?”

All of a sudden, Luke’s brain did a rewiring of the last few moments: Ashton’s watery eyes that might not have been signs of him crying but something else entirely; his hand suspiciously placed over his mouth; François zipping up his pants and looking in a state of disarray as if he had just been—

Luke immediately felt sick to his stomach as his mind put two and two together. But it was not only from disgust.

It was from pure, unadulterated _rage_.

“ _What the fuck did you to do him_?” Luke snarled angrily. He was moving before he even realized it. One moment he’d been standing in the doorway, and the next he found himself standing tall and stiff directly in front of the desk.

Perhaps the most infuriating part was that François didn’t even acknowledge Luke’s rage. He smiled as he always did, only now it was twice as uncomfortable to look at because he’d basically just confirmed that he really was as sinister as he appeared. He took his sweet time sliding the loose strands of hair back into place with his hand, before moving to his chair and sitting down.

When François finally met Luke’s eyes in that moment, Luke would have probably cowered in fear and shown submission if not for the anger still boiling in his veins. Because even though François was just a man, he was still a terrifying one.

“Pardon?” he had the nerve to say, as if he had no idea what Luke was referring or what he’d just done to Ashton.

Luke glared down at him and gritted his teeth. “I _said_ —”

“Oh, I heard you just fine,” he interrupted. His words were chilling but he never stopped smiling. “But I’ve decided to pretend that I didn’t, just to give you a second chance before you mistakenly speak that way to your employer again.”

Even if Luke’s head was clouded with anger and disgust, he was still able to recognize exactly what François was implying with those words. The rational side of Luke’s mind told him that if he were to get fired right now, there was no way that he’d be able to help Ashton anymore. So as much as it pained Luke to resist driving his fist right into François’ stupidly unflawed face, he managed to hold himself back.

“And should I remind you who it was that made you head waiter?”

“No need, _sir_ ,” Luke replied, deciding that two could play this game. “With all due respect, you and I both know that I didn’t deserve this position, _sir_. Ashton did. You only chose me because you knew it’d rile him up and for whatever reason, you have something against him. _Sir_.”

“Do I now?” François hummed and leaned back in his chair as if to get more relaxed. Luke wanted to choke him to death. “These are very bold claims that you make, mister Hemmings. Do you have any evidence for them?”

Luke said nothing. The smile on François’ face made an easy return.

“I see. So you do not.” As if bored of their conversation now, François checked his wristwatch before turning in his chair to log out of his computer, all without even looking at Luke. “If there’s anyone you should be questioning, I believe it’s Irwin. Anyway, you are dismissed.”

It took all of Luke’s strength and willpower to stop himself from attacking this man with as much force as he could. It took even more strength to walk out of that office, just as Ashton had done only moments prior. Luke knew that he had to get to the bottom of this, to find out the whole truth and just what the _fuck_ was going on. He’d do all of that really soon, but first he was going to find Ashton.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Notes on Ashton's heat:** I meant to include a link in this box to a post that I made on my blog about what happened during Ashton's heat (this fic was originally going to be in Ashton's POV, so I'd constructed a scene about his heat) but now I can't find it!!!!! And I'm sad about that :( but basically, I just wanted to include it if you wanted to know what happened during that time, and I had considered writing a tiny little drabble on it. But I'll just tell you the scenario:
> 
> Basically, Ashton gets the sweets from Oliver and reads the note that Luke gave him and he's annoyed because wow, okay, he's in _heat_ not dying of an actual illness!! But then he realizes that this was very sweet of Luke... literally... and the note kind of smells just like Luke... wow... and then cut to Ashton fucking himself with a vibrator while thinking about Luke and inhaling his scent from the note lol. But can you blame him? I mean he's in heat and he doesn't have an alpha to fuck him u.u


	3. Equilibrium

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAND HERE'S THE FINALE PLS ENJOY!!!!!! 
> 
> **warnings:** a bit of Sad Ashton (fuck François amirite); Luke being a bad ass ?!

* * *

 

Ashton was nowhere to be found.

Luke started off by searching the parking lot, and since he didn’t recall seeing Ashton’s car when he’d arrived at work earlier that evening, he assumed that Dylan had dropped him off. By extension, this meant that Ashton was either on foot or he’d taken the nearest city bus. It was frustrating because that implied that he could either be very close or very, very far away by now.

The next thing that Luke did was give Dylan a call and ask if Ashton had arrived home yet, but apparently Dylan and the guys had traveled to the next city over where they would stay at a hotel and play a show for some college kids the next day; in other words, he really had no clue where Ashton had gone, either. Luke acted as if it wasn’t a big deal so as not to worry him about his missing roommate, even though Luke himself was beginning to panic from the inside out.

After driving up and down the nearest streets and not finding anyone who resembled Ashton, Luke had no other choice but to go home. He told himself that everything was probably fine, even though things were clearly not fine at all, and that he’d done everything that he could. He’d left Ashton several more text messages and even a _voicemail_ , which most people didn’t even use nowadays, so what else could he do but wait and hope that Ashton was okay?

It was around two in the morning when Luke finally heard from the omega. He’d stayed up for as long as his exhausted mind and body would let him, before falling asleep on his couch about half an hour prior to being contacted. But as soon as he realized that his phone was ringing, he bolted upright and grasped for it before it had a chance to go to voicemail.

“Hello? Ashton? Are you there?”

There was relative silence from the other side until, finally, Luke heard someone breathing.

“Oh… Luke? Is that—is that you?” Ashton spoke slowly and deliberately, as if pushing each word out was taking more effort than usual. His slurring probably meant that he was drunk.

Luke tried his best not to sound panicked. “Yeah, yeah it’s me… where are you? I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Did you make it home?”

“I. Um.” Ashton paused for several seconds too long, then unexpectedly, he made a laughing sound that was more heavy breathing than actual laughing. “I’m at, um—the bar? The gay one. Yeah, I guess… I guess that’s where I am. Um.”

“Okay,” Luke said. He was already tugging on his shoes before he replied, “Do you need me to come get you? Never mind, I’m coming to get you anyway. Stay where you are, okay? I’ll be there soon, I promise.”

“I—I’m sorry, Luke,” he mumbled. There was a ruffling sound before he spoke again. “M’sorry, I didn’t know who to… who to… call.”

“That’s okay,” Luke told him. He grabbed his keys as he powerwalked towards the front door. “Just keep talking to me, alright?”

Most of what Ashton said to Luke while he drove to his location was incoherent babbling, and at one point he made some joke entirely in French that he couldn’t remember the punchline of, but laughed at himself anyway. Whenever he fell silent for too long, Luke reminded him to keep talking and even asked to hear another lame French joke.

By the time that Luke arrived at the bar, Ashton had gone relatively silent again. That was okay because Luke saw him sitting outside on the curb as soon as the bar came into view, his knees pulled up to his chest and his head lulled to the side. He didn’t look up when the BMW slowly pulled next to the curb, nor did he look up when Luke got out of the car to help him stand.

“Hey, it’s me,” Luke said as softly as he could manage. He placed a hand on Ashton’s shoulder and felt slightly relieved when Ashton finally looked up and acknowledged that he was there.

“Luke,” Ashton said, staring up at him with wide, confused eyes. “You didn’t laugh at my joke… _fils de pute_.”

In any other situation, Luke would’ve gotten much joy out of hearing a heavily intoxicated Ashton swear at him in French, since he rarely spoke the language outside of working at the restaurant. But as for now, he sighed deeply and helped Ashton to his feet so that he could somehow get him into the car.

Since it probably wasn’t safe to leave Ashton all by himself, Luke took the guy back to his own apartment. Ashton was silent the entire journey there, his head resting against the passenger window and his eyes unmoving. There were so many things that Luke needed to ask him, so much confusion and anger and _pain_ , but he didn’t know how reliable Ashton would be while intoxicated. So no matter how much Luke wanted to blurt out everything that was plaguing his mind, he told himself to be patient until later on that morning.

Getting Ashton to the elevator and into Luke’s apartment was a lot easier than getting him into the car had been, so they made it over to the couch in no time flat. Ashton plopped down heavily, his limbs still loose and pliant from the alcohol in his system. In order to get rid of that, Luke immediately went into the kitchen to fetch the unopened bottle of smart water in his refrigerator. When he came back to the couch, he opened it for Ashton and held it out for him to take.

“Drink this,” Luke said. “At least half of it while I’m standing here, alright?”

Ashton stared up at him through half-lidded eyes and giggled. It was a strange sound in comparison to his usual laugh.

“Aye aye, captain,” he slurred, taking the bottle from Luke and doing as he was told.

Luke stood in front of the couch and watched as the water slowly disappeared down Ashton’s throat. He didn’t stop at the halfway point, either. He downed the entire bottle at a gradual pace, but it was clear that he’d been needing it. Just in case he’d want some more, Luke went back into the kitchen and returned with a tall glass of water, which he set on the coffee table.

Ashton tilted his head to the side as he watched Luke’s every movement.

“Why haven’t you said it yet?”

Since he’d been on his way out of the room to retrieve some spare blankets, Luke paused and glanced back at the couch.

“Said what?”

Ashton smirked at him. “That I’m just another omega whore.”

The words came as a complete surprise to Luke, who had never once thought of such a thing. Ever. But as the only sober person in the room, he knew that Ashton was just trying to get a reaction out of him. He also knew that it was some sort of defense mechanism, because Ashton was scared and he had issues with trusting people, namely alphas, and he probably figured that if he proved himself right then nothing would be able to hurt him anymore.

But Ashton was wrong about that, because Luke wasn’t going to play along.

“Ashton, I would _never_ think that about you,” he said as gently as he could.

“But you know it’s true, don’t you?” Ashton insisted. “So just go on and say it. Save us all the trouble.”

“No, I’m not going to.”

“I sucked the boss’ dick.”

Hearing it aloud was like a sudden stab to the gut. Luke felt the anger and the jealousy roar up within him once again, filling every crevice in his body. He couldn’t speak because he had to use every bit of energy to keep from lashing out and doing something he would regret, something like finding François and ending him for good.

Seeing that he was finally able to get a reaction out of Luke, Ashton sat up a little straighter and continued pouring salt into the wound.

“You know I did, you saw me. You’re a smart boy, Luke, you know exactly what goes on behind closed doors. And now you know that I’m a whore, too. One who sucked the boss’ dick.”

“He _made_ you do that,” Luke countered, and he was so angry that he could feel himself shaking. “For some fucking reason, he made you. I don’t know what he threatened you with or whatever the fuck he has against you, but I _know_ you wouldn’t do that, Ashton. Not unless he made you.”

Ashton weakly shrugged. “Doesn’t matter if he made me, I still did it.”

“You didn’t have a choice.”

“I did, actually. It was my job or my dignity—hah, and guess what I chose!”

“Ashton…”

“It’s true, you know, what those conservative assholes say about omegas? All we’re good for is sex and being weak and obedient and—”

“ _Stop it_ ,” Luke demanded, raising his voice for the first time that night.

Ashton finally stopped. He looked as if he was two seconds away from saying something else just to rile Luke up, but all of a sudden his entire expression crumbled. He covered his face with both of his hands as he body shook with the single, intense cry that escaped him, and then he went completely still.

In that moment, Luke felt like he had the night that he’d found Ashton crying in the employee bathroom. But whereas that time he’d felt mildly sympathetic, this time he felt as if his heart was being ripped out and shredded into pieces. His legs automatically carried him over to the couch again, where he knelt in front of Ashton and carefully placed a hand on his knee, hoping that he wasn’t overstepping any boundaries by doing that.

“I’m not judging you, Ashton,” he murmured soothingly. “The anger that I feel isn’t directed at you either, so please don’t think that. What’s made me angry are the sick, disgusting people like _François_ , who use their power and authority to take advantage of good people like you. I’m angry at this… this fucking shitty society that puts alphas like me on pedestals and lets us do whatever the hell we want, while silencing omegas and ignoring your mistreatment. _That’s_ what I’m angry about, Ashton. Not you. Never you.”

It was silent for a long moment between them, and maybe that was what Ashton needed in that moment. Luke was okay with that, he could wait for as long as he needed to if it meant that Ashton would gradually start to feel better. Even if things weren’t exactly _fine_ , Luke never wanted to see him on the edge like that ever again.

At last, Ashton slowly lowered his hands from his face to look at Luke. His hazel eyes were dry but it might’ve been because he didn’t have any tears left to shed. He was examining Luke’s face at the same time that Luke was examining his, and in a sudden twist of events, he leaned forward and threw his arms around Luke’s neck.

Now, being hugged by Ashton was probably the last thing that Luke expected to happen in that moment, but he certainly wasn’t complaining. In fact, he felt glad for the first time in the past day. It felt like the most natural thing in the world when he wrapped his arms around Ashton’s waist and held him, one of his hands soothingly rubbing the omega’s back for extra comfort.

They stayed exactly like that for countless minutes. When Ashton pulled away, he didn’t look as if he was on the verge of breaking anymore.

Luke smiled at him. “You can sleep in my bed, if you want. Would you like that? And if it makes you more comfortable, I can sleep out here on the couch instead.”

Ashton sniffled and shook his head. “No, it’s okay. I’ll be fine here on the couch.”

“You sure?”

“Mhm…”

“Okay.” Luke pressed a soft kiss to his forehead before standing up again. His long legs were a tad sore from being knelt in that same position for so long, but he ignored the subtle ache as he left the couch to go and find the blankets. “I’ll be right back, ‘kay?”

Ashton nodded. “M’kay.”

When Luke returned a moment later with the fluffiest comforter he could find and a spare pillow, he found Ashton curled up on the couch with his eyes shut and a look of peacefulness on his face. He opened his eyes when he felt Luke’s presence approach the couch, and he wordlessly lifted his head to allow Luke to place the pillow there. After Luke had spread the comforter over his body as well, only then did Ashton speak.

“Thank you,” he murmured so quietly that Luke nearly missed it.

Luke got very little sleep that night, solely for the fact that he couldn’t stop repeating those words in his head.

***

When Luke awoke the next morning, exhausted and in desperate need of coffee, he went about his usual morning routine. He brushed his teeth and washed his face, accidentally stepped on one of Lewi’s toys that had been left in the middle of the room, and after letting out a string of curses, left the bedroom to start breakfast.

Ashton was still asleep on the couch, one of his arms hanging over the edge and his mouth ajar as he softly snored. His hair was all over the place, although mostly in his face, but he still managed to look like some sort of Disney prince who would soon awaken and go off to slay a dragon or something. Luke felt a little envious, but most of all, he felt a warmth build up inside.

Seeing Ashton first thing in the morning had to be the greatest thing yet.

Since Luke was feeling hungry and he imagined that Ashton would be hungry as well, he went into the kitchen and got to work right after feeding Lewi. He didn’t really know what kind of breakfast food Ashton preferred, so he made a mixture of everything that he had in the refrigerator: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, and blueberry pancakes. Luke had become a little addicted to pancakes ever since moving to America a couple of years back.

By the time that Ashton awoke and drifted into the kitchen—probably lured by the delicious aroma—Luke was busy with the last task of making the scrambled eggs. He looked over his shoulder when he felt a presence, and there stood Ashton. His hair wasn’t so messy anymore and he looked a bit cleaned up, which meant he must’ve made a detour to the bathroom before entering the kitchen. Luke turned back to focus on the eggs, but he was smiling to himself at the thought of Ashton wanting to be presentable for him. Little did he know that Luke thought he was always presentable, no matter how he looked.

“There’s coffee if you want any,” Luke told him. “Mugs are in the cupboard to your right.”

Ashton didn’t say anything, but his light footsteps moved in the direction of the cupboard and then the coffee machine.

It was incredibly hard to resist the urge to watch him move about the kitchen. Luke just couldn’t get over how domestic this was, drinking coffee and eating breakfast together as if they were already mates. Recently, he’d been fantasizing more and more about these type of scenarios rather than the ones where he was fucking Ashton over a table at Le Chatelier’s.

When all was finished, Luke made their plates. He had a feeling that if he’d let Ashton fix his own, he would’ve been too polite and only grabbed a couple of things. His intuition was proven correct when Ashton’s eyes widened at the amount on his plate, and he shyly thanked Luke before digging in.

“It’s really good,” Ashton said, speaking softly. He took a sip of his coffee before adding cheekily, “Maybe even better than iHop.”

“You flatter me,” Luke replied. He was smiling so big that he had to stare down at his plate to avoid doing something stupid.

“I mean it, though. Did you learn on your own, or…?”

“I used to cook with my dad all the time,” he explained. “My mum was always working really hard, so my dad would get up early every morning and start fixing this huge breakfast, like, I’m talking breakfast _feast_. At some point I started getting up early to help him, and he’d teach me how to make certain things. I nearly always fell asleep in class as a result, but it was fun.”

“Aww,” Ashton cooed once he’d heard the short story. “Your family sounds really cute. I bet they miss—”

A sudden gasp interrupted him. Ashton glanced down to the floor and sighed when he saw that it was only Lewi rubbing up against his leg, which had obviously scared him. Luke considered taking Lewi into the other room so that they could enjoy their meal in peace, when Ashton did a strange thing.

And by strange, Luke meant that Ashton reached down and scratched Lewi behind his ear. It had to be the most fascinating, extraordinary sight that he’d ever seen in his life. To make matters worse, Ashton _giggled_ when Lewi licked a bit of syrup off his fingers before walking away to find new entertainment.

Ashton looked up to find Luke watching him, amazed. He visibly blushed but said nothing, instead picking up his fork again to shovel some of the remaining scrambled eggs into his mouth.

They continued eating in silence for a while. Luke tried hard not to stare at Ashton’s fingers every time that he licked them, and Ashton pretended to “accidentally” nudge his foot against Luke’s beneath the table. However, regardless of the peace that they felt that morning, the events of the night before still hung over their heads like several sharp knives dangling from thin pieces of thread. Luke knew that he’d eventually have to bring up the elephant in the room, and he _wanted_ to since there was still so much that he wanted to ask, but he also wanted to enjoy being able to live the fantasy of Ashton being happy and _his_.

“So, I guess you’re wondering about what happened last night.”

Well, looks like the fantasy was ending whether or not Luke wanted it to. He instantly looked up from his mostly empty plate to focus on Ashton instead, who was using his fork to push around the last piece of pancake on his plate. Luke knew that it was just a nervous action to keep his hands busy, but Ashton’s voice sounded sure, so that meant they were really going to talk about this.

“Yeah…” Luke said, then trailed off. He thought of the first question that he wanted to ask. “Um… how long had... _that_ been going on? I mean, the François thing. When did he first start… harassing you?”

It probably shouldn’t have been that difficult to get the question out, but it was an uncomfortable thing to talk about and Luke’s deep red anger hadn’t gone away at all. It had simply buried itself in order to be revived at a later point in time.

Ashton considered the question carefully. Before he answered it, he took a deep breath.

“He hasn’t been working there for long, you know. I mean, you _don’t_ know, since you’re relatively new, but… before François, we worked under a different manager. His name was Charles. He was a lot older and a bit of a conservative dickhead, but at least he was fair. He always told me that I was hard worker, too. But then he retired a year and a half ago, and François replaced him.”

Ashton paused for a moment, presumably to put together the rest of the story in his head before saying it aloud. Luke sat there and waited for him to continue, doing his best to be patient because it must have been hard for Ashton to talk about. Really, Luke couldn’t imagine what he must be feeling.

“He sort of came out of nowhere,” Ashton continued. His brows were furrowed as he recalled the memory. "Usually people work their way up to manager, I think. Experience and wisdom are seen as the most important things. But François, well, he hadn’t been working at the restaurant before he suddenly showed up to be manager. Everyone was suspicious of him, even John, but I think he got the position because he’d been acquainted with the owner of the establishment, Alexandre.

“For a while, I thought that François was a lot better than Charles. He seemed nicer, even if he was kind of intimidating, and everyone stopped being suspicious of him once they got used to him. I, um… I had recently moved out of my mom’s place at the time, and Dylan and I were kind of struggling to keep up with the rent, you know. So I asked François if he could give me my check in advance, and I was fully prepared for him to say no and probably laugh in my face, but then… he gave it to me, as well as a loan of two thousand dollars.”

Luke’s eyes widened when he heard that last part, and his brows shot up high on his forehead.

“Holy shit, are you serious?”

Ashton nodded. “I tried to refuse it, of course, not just because I’d never accept that kind of money but also because I knew I wouldn’t be able to pay it back for quite some time. But François told me that I’d pay it back with my labor, and you know him, it’s… hard to say no. So I worked more hours each week, which was no problem at all, and whenever I needed help with something I’d go to him because he told me to. And I thought that I could… trust him.

“Of course that changed a few months back. He’d told me that I had a promotion in my future, and naturally I believed him. I’d been busting my ass for that promotion for as long as I could remember, but I worked even harder to prove to him that I deserved it. But then… you got the promotion instead, and I was so confused and hurt because he’d promised it to me. He’d been so nice and helpful up until that point, and then suddenly he turned on me like I was nothing. I just don’t get it.”

“He was toying with you,” Luke commented. Some of the anger had slipped into his tone unknowingly, but if Ashton noticed, he didn’t react.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Ashton huffed out a dejected laugh. In a quieter tone, he added, “Also, he… um, he found out about us.”

Luke instantly frowned. “You mean…”

“Yes. I guess we weren’t being as discreet as we thought we were.”

“Oh. Well… what did he say?”

Ashton shrugged, then imitated François’ voice perfectly when he said, “That relationships amongst co-workers goes against the employee guidelines at Le Chatelier’s, and that I should be wiser about the decisions that I choose to make.”

“Bullshit,” Luke replied. But then he paused. “Wait, is that true?”

“It is.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, though. Why does he have a problem with us when there are other couples who are pretty obvious about being together? Say, Michael and Cal, for instance.”

Ashton gave him a look instead of answering the question verbally, a look that translated to _you know why_. Then, it hit Luke like a ton of bricks.

“He’s jealous,” Luke guessed, feeling dumb for taking so long to figure it out. “François wants you and he’s jealous of me, but chooses to take it out on you instead because it’s…”

“Easier,” Ashton finished for him. “I guess he’s got it in his head that he _owns_ me, after all of the shit that he’s done for me in the past. I suppose that recently he realized that he doesn’t own me and never would, so he might as well get rid of me since I’m so replaceable…”

“You’re not replaceable,” Luke blurted out. He thought of reaching across the table and taking Ashton’s hands, but didn’t know if it would be appropriate or not, so he restrained himself. “Far from it, Ashton. No one else works as hard as you do, no one has the patience to deal with the shit that you deal with, either. No one.”

Ashton stared at him in awe, as if he hadn’t expected Luke to defend him, even from himself. His expression grew soft when he said:

“Thank you, Luke. Really, it means a lot to me… and I only wish he thought so, too.”

“Doesn’t matter what he thinks. We’re going to get rid of him, anyway.”

“What?” Now Ashton looked utterly confused. “What are you talking about?”

“We’re going to get rid of François,” Luke repeated. “We can’t just sit here and do nothing while he continues threatening to fire you unless you blow him, that sick son of a bitch… I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he realizes that he isn’t actually untouchable.”

“That’s…” Ashton suddenly shook his head. “That’s not possible, Luke. I mean, he’s the manager. He can do whatever he wants because of that. To be honest, I’m probably just gonna have to start looking for another job and hope that I get hired sooner rather than later.”

In that moment, Luke couldn’t believe the words coming out of Ashton’s mouth. In fact, he didn’t think it was even possible for Ashton to just give up so easily like this, and maybe it came from Luke’s own inability to understand, but he was still hardheaded.

“What the hell? Ashton, you can _fight_ this! We both can, as long as we’re together.” Luke saw the moment that Ashton started to shake his head again in disagreement, but he continued talking anyway. “It’s like you said before, right? I have privilege. If someone doesn’t believe you or care what you have to say, maybe they’ll listen to me instead. And have you forgotten that literally everyone else that we work with _adores_ you? If you asked them to stick up for you, they’d do it in a heartbeat. Just like I would. We’ll be a lot stronger in numbers, and with a prestigious chef like John Feldmann on our side as well, they’ll have no choice but to listen.”

“Luke, we don’t even know who _they_ are!” Ashton cried out. Right now, it looked as if he was having some sort of internal crisis with himself, and like he wanted to believe in Luke but was too afraid to be let down. “And while I appreciate the sentiment, I can take care of things myself.”

“But that’s the problem, isn’t it?” Luke bit back. “You’re always trying to take care of everyone else, but who’s taking care of you?”

“I am.”

Luke scoffed at that. “Yeah, well, no offense, but you’re doing a pretty crappy job at it.”

Ashton slammed his fork down onto the table, the loud noise startling them both. He recovered rather quickly and resorted to glaring at Luke, as if it had the same effect that it used to before they started sleeping together.

“Dammit, Luke. What the hell do you want from me? Why do you want to help when it has nothing to do with you?”

Without pause, Luke answered simply: “Because I’m in love with you.”

All of a sudden it became so silent that they could hear Lewi moving around in the other room. Ashton had gone from glaring angrily at Luke to staring at him as if he’d just spoken words from an ancient, long-dead language. Luke felt entirely raw and vulnerable, his heart beating a mile a minute, but he wouldn’t take those words back for anything.

Ashton muttered, “That… that isn’t funny.”

“And I’m not joking.” Luke took a second to think about that, and when it dawned on him, he wanted to laugh. “Oh my god, I’m in _love_ with you. I seriously am. Like, that’s a real thing that’s happened!”

Luke really did start laughing at that point, and Ashton continued to stare at him as if he’d totally lost it. Although to be honest, who could say that Luke hadn’t? He certainly felt like it in that moment, because around two months ago he was seriously considering burying Ashton alive, and now he was making breakfast for the guy with the strongest urge to protect him from anyone and anything.

Talk about character development.

“Sorry,” Luke said a moment later, after he’d calmed down. “It’s just that the irony in that is a lot funnier than you realize. So, um. Now you know, I guess. You can decide if you believe me or not, but either way, I’m not letting that bastard get away with putting his hands on you. I’ll _die_ before I even think about letting that happen.”

Ashton was still staring at him, only now his expression showed that he was taking in everything that Luke had said up until this point. Maybe he was trying to decide if Luke really had been telling the truth or not. Or, maybe he knew that Luke was telling the truth and nothing but the truth, but Ashton wasn’t sure if he wanted to put his faith in another person—another _alpha_ , who had the potential of hurting him in the future. And while neither of them knew what the future had in store for them, Luke still hoped that Ashton would rather take a risk on him than risk facing this alone.

After what felt like ages, Ashton gave a shaky nod.

“Okay,” he said, and sounded as if he was barely holding it together. “Okay, I’ll… um, I’ll let you help me. I’ll let everyone help me, just… promise me that you won’t get yourself fired while trying to be a hero?”

Luke began to smile from ear to ear. This time he really did reach across the table for Ashton’s hands, but instead of grabbing them, he let his own hands hover in the middle. It pleased him more than anything when Ashton’s hands met him the rest of the way, and Luke gave them a firm squeeze.

“I promise. Now, do you want to hear my plan?”

***

It took approximately two days for Luke’s plan to take action.

The majority of that time was spend gathering every single employee who worked at Le Chatelier’s, aside from the managers, and coming up with a time that they could all join together for a secret meeting. In the end, it was relatively easy to convince them all to join Luke and Ashton’s cause. As it turned out, most of them also had bones to pick with François for one reason or another, and for those who didn’t, they decided that they _definitely_ had bones to pick once they heard that he’d been mistreating Ashton beyond the point of reconciliation.

Now that he had the support that he needed, the rest of Luke’s plan came fairly easy. On the night that everything was set into motion, he arrived at the restaurant alone. Completely alone, as a matter of fact, meaning that every other staff member wasn’t going to show up to work that evening. And if no one planned to show up, then they wouldn’t be able to open the restaurant for any customers. If they couldn’t open the restaurant for customers, then obviously they wouldn’t be getting any money from said customers.

Luke’s plan was so ingenious that he felt like patting himself on the back.

There wasn’t anyone in the foyer nor the dining room when Luke entered the restaurant, just as he’d anticipated. However, even from this room, he could hear distant yelling from somewhere else within the building. As he came closer to the sound, it both surprised and delighted him when he recognized that voice as belonging to none other than François. Never before had Luke or anyone else, for that matter, seen the ever-calm François in a state of rage. Apparently, that was going to change.

Luke made sure that he had everything prepared before quietly walking down the hallway towards the manager’s office. From this close he could actually hear what François was saying and who he was yelling at, which happened to be Chuck, in this case.

“Call them.”

“I-I did, sir, but none of them answered.”

“Then call them _again_!”

Chuck actually let out a small squeak at the sudden rage that returned to François’ tone. He had always been particularly squeamish when it came to stressful situations or anything even remotely difficult, and though it made him annoying to deal with, Luke almost felt sorry for the man. Just almost.

When Luke appeared in the doorway a moment later, he saw the funniest scene that he could’ve hoped to see in that moment. Chuck was standing to the side of the big desk, his entire face red as he was frantically punching in numbers on his cellphone, most likely trying to call the staff members to ask why the hell no one had showed up at work. He flinched every time that François swore in French or slammed down the work phone that was placed on the desk, because he obviously couldn’t get in touch with anyone either.

Deciding to make his entrance as dramatic as possible, Luke lifted his knuckles and lightly knocked on the opened door to get their attention. They stared at him in surprise, having not noticed his presence until that point. Luke couldn’t help but smirk.

“Bad day at work?” he asked, his tone innocent but his eyes saying otherwise.

François caught on immediately. He pointed an accusing finger at Luke and said, “ _You_. Where the hell are the others?”

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Luke casually replied. He looked at Chuck, who was frozen, and added: “Alone.”

“Goodbye, Chuck,” said François without looking away from Luke.

Chuck seemed all too eager to get out of that room and escape from the crossfire. He scurried past Luke and down the hallway, leaving them to their own problems. Luke greatly doubted that he was going to come back any time soon, which gave them plenty of time to discuss what needed to be discussed.

“So, I noticed that none of my co-workers decided to show up today,” Luke said, just to be a pain in the ass. “Know anything about that?”

“What have you done?” François snarled.

Luke took his sweet time answering that question. In fact, he decided to make himself a bit more comfortable, so he entered the room fully and took a seat in one of the comfortable armchairs. Just because he felt like it and he knew that it would only make François angrier, he lifted his legs and crossed them over the desk, smiling when his boss glared at his shoes.

Finally, he said, “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir. Honestly, I’m just as confused as you are.”

“Do not _lie_ to me, mister Hemmings, because I promise you that you’ll soon regret it.”

“Oh wow, was that meant to be a threat?” Luke snorted. “Anyway, why shouldn’t I lie to you? I mean, you lied to me just a couple of days ago, didn’t you? I believe our roles were reversed, back then. I asked what you’d done to Ashton Irwin, and you pretended not to know. You remember that, don’t you?”

At the mention of Ashton, the murderous look that François had been giving him slowly transformed into a dirty grin that Luke still wanted to punch right off of his too-perfect face. Perhaps he’d go for the nose and break it beyond repair. Broken noses had the strange ability to make anyone look less appealing.

“Ah, so you still want to know what I did to Irwin, hm? The little cocksucker that you follow around like a sad dog with his master?”

Luke did his best to swallow down the tremendous urge to deliver that punch within the next few seconds. Clenching his jaw, he nodded.

“I fucked him,” François admitted with great ease and a hint of arrogance. “Well, his mouth. You are aware that he has a lovely mouth, yes? Oh, I’m sure you are. He seemed quite eager, too, when I called him in here and asked how badly he wanted to keep his job. But you know, he’s also a bit pathetic now that I think about it. He was willing to go down on me if it meant that he could keep his pathetic job as a waiter, as if he couldn’t be the exact same thing at any other establishment. But what do you think, Hemmings? Is he pathetic, or just extremely dedicated?”

It wasn’t easier to stomach it the second time that Luke was faced with the reality of what had happened, that was for sure. All that it did was make him wish even more that he had been there to stop it, that he’d known exactly how Ashton was being treated over the past couple of months.

Sadly, Luke couldn’t go back to the past and change anything. He could, however, take this son of a bitch down for good.

“I think…” Luke took a moment to remove his phone from his shirt pocket. He turned the screen towards François so that he could see that Luke had been on a call this entire time, and said, “I think that Alexandre has heard enough of the disgusting shit that you’ve done, _sir_.”

In retrospect, seeing the horrified expression on François’ face now was well-worth listening to the terrible way that he had talked about Ashton. He looked between the phone and Luke’s smug as hell face several times before shaking his head in disbelief.

“Liar! Alexandre is not—”

“That is _enough_ , François,” said Alexandre, the owner of Le Chatelier’s, through the phone’s speaker. He not only sounded gravely disappointed, but he also sounded just as disgusted and betrayed as Luke felt on the inside. “I want to hear nothing else from that wretched mouth of yours, understood?”

It took François several tries to get the word “yes” out of his mouth, since he was so distressed that he’d said it in French the first couple of times. In all of Luke’s life, he never thought that he would get as much pleasure as he did to see François behaving more like Chuck than _Chuck_ behaved like himself. It was definitely the most amusing sight that he’d seen in a very long time.

Procuring the help of Alexandre hadn’t taken much, since apparently he valued head chef John Feldmann much more than he valued François, who was practically a nobody to begin with. All that Luke had to do was ask John to give Alexandre a call for Ashton’s sake, and the deal was done. Of course, they still needed some sort of evidence or for François to admit his wrongdoings to Alexandre, which he never would have done even if asked. That was when Michael came up with the fantastic idea of _tricking_ him into admitting what he’d done without knowing that Alexandre was listening.

So, really, Luke couldn’t take _all_ of the credit for his fantastic plan, but hey. They certainly were a lot stronger as a team.

“Now that you’ve heard it from his own lips,” Luke said into the phone, “What do you plan to do about it?”

Alexandre let out a long, tired sigh into the phone. Obviously he didn’t want to have to deal with any of this, no one would, but he was a business man and he knew exactly how to solve issues without escalating the problem at hand.

“He’s fired, of course,” he announced, and François looked shocked as if he hadn’t expected that result at all. _Dumb ass_. “And he’ll have to be replaced as soon as possible. In the meantime, what can I do for you, mister Hemmings? As someone with a very large investment and a well-earned reputation on the line, I’m sure you’d understand why I’d like to ensure that no one else finds out about this.”

This guy really knew how to cut to the chase. Luke was starting to like him.

“No worries, sir, I wouldn’t tell a soul. The reputation and success of Le Chatelier’s is just as important to me as it is to you,” Luke told him. He glanced up to see the grief-stricken expression on François’ face and grinned. “But now that you mention it, I do have one particular request in mind.”

***

The next day, Luke woke up around ten in the morning. He did his usual routine, fed Lewi, and he was in the middle of trying to figure out what he wanted to do that day when someone began banging on his front door. Luke reluctantly paused the Netflix show that he’d been busy watching, but felt better about it when he saw Guy Fieri’s face frozen awkwardly on the screen.

As soon as the door was opened, someone was shoving an iPhone in his face.

“Explain this.”

Luke wasn’t alarmed because he recognized the voice as belonging to none other than Ashton, but also the familiar scent that came with him. He sounded a mix between shocked and angry, but mostly shock, so Luke took a step back so that his eyes could properly focus on whatever Ashton was showing him on the cellphone screen.

“It… seems to be a phone number,” Luke answered sarcastically. “Would you like me to explain how those things work?”

Ashton didn’t seem to have the patience for his nonsense. He pushed past Luke and entered the apartment without being invited beforehand, not that Luke would ever have a problem with that. Having Ashton visit his home brought just as much happiness as being covered in golden retriever puppies.

Well, almost.

“I’m aware that it’s a phone number,” he said with a roll of his eyes as he spun around to face Luke again. “But have you any clue _whose_ number it is and why they called me this morning?”

“Not the slightest clue, no.”

“Guess.”

“Hmm… long lost twin?” Luke answered cheekily. He smirked and said, “If he’s anything like you, then I’m screwed. Literally.”

Ashton didn’t fall for the inappropriate joke. He locked the phone and shoved it into his jeans pocket, then crossed his arms over his chest and fixed Luke with a _look_. It wasn’t fair that that particular look used to intimidate Luke but nowadays just ended up turning him on, because he had a feeling that Ashton wasn’t in the mood to get naked.

“It was Alexandre,” he said at last. “The _owner_ of Le Chatelier’s. He called to offer me the position as the restaurant’s new manager.”

As soon as the words left Ashton’s mouth, the biggest smile spread across Luke’s face. Of course he’d known all along that Ashton was going to receive this particular offer, since Luke was the one who requested it as his one condition of keeping silent on what had happened with François. But he hadn’t thought that it would happen so soon, or even that Alexandre would personally reach out to Ashton to tell him this.

Honestly, it was kind of a miracle.

“Ashton, that’s _terrific_!” Luke exclaimed. He grabbed Ashton by the shoulders and lightly shook him, encouraging him to get just as excited in that moment. “What else did he say? Do you start working immediately? You know what, never mind that for now—we should be celebrating! Wherever you wanna go, drinks are on me.”

“That’s enough, Luke.” Ashton gently removed the hands from his shoulders and shook his head. Then, he sighed. “I didn’t exactly… accept it. The offer, I mean. I told him that I’d think about it and call him back when I came to a decision.”

Luke felt his jaw drop to the floor. He briefly considered cleaning out his ears to see if he’d heard correctly, but even then, he knew that it was the dreaded truth and he was absolutely dumbfounded.

“You’re shitting me.”

“No, I’m not.” Ashton let out another sigh of frustration and stared down at his feet. “Look, I know that you had something to do with it and I can’t even begin to explain how thankful I am, honestly! But Luke… I-I didn’t do anything to earn that position. And blackmailing Alexandre into offering it to me because of what happened with François? That just isn’t right.”

“No, no, no—you’ve got it all wrong!” Luke reached out and used his hand to lift Ashton’s chin, willing him to make eye contact. “First of all, how is it blackmail when you’re the only victim here? Hell, after what’s happened, you deserve a whole lot more than this, to be completely fuckin’ honest. And second of all, you _have_ earned this. You’ve been at the restaurant longer than anyone and you work the hardest, too. In fact, you’ve always deserved more than just being head waiter. You deserve to be manager.”

Ashton seemed to be considering those words for a long moment. It was as if he knew that they were true, but couldn’t bring himself to believe that this was really happening. Even more than that, it was as if he’d been treated like crap for so long that he was too damaged to allow himself to have this good thing that was right in front of him.

Eventually, Ashton sighed once again and stepped away from Luke. For a second there, Luke feared that he was already making for the exit, but instead Ashton walked into the living room and took a seat on the couch. Luke followed behind and watched as he plopped down heavily onto the soft cushions, letting out a breath as he did so.

“I think I’m gonna faint,” he muttered, seemingly awestruck.

Luke tilted his head to the side and chuckled. “What? Why?”

“ _Manager_ , Luke.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Can you believe that? Because I can’t. I mean, holy shit… _manager_. Me, of all people.”

Luke walked over and took a seat on the couch next to him. He couldn’t deny that seeing Ashton like this was the cutest thing, but it also made him a little sad. Most people would’ve been bouncing off the ceiling by now, but Ashton just looked overwhelmed and a bit unsure of himself and his feelings.

Well, Luke sought to change that by the end of the day.

“What if I can’t do it?” he asked suddenly. When he looked at Luke, there was a hint of fear in his bright eyes. “Like, this isn’t just any ol’ restaurant, you know, this is something big and I’ll be in charge of _all_ of it now. All of it and everyone.”

“Not… necessarily,” Luke said, speaking slowly. Hoping it would provide comfort, he reached up and began carding his fingers through Ashton’s hair like he did sometimes, and was relieved when Ashton seemed to relax a little. “You’ll have me, you know. I’ll be taking some of that responsibility as head waiter. Then there’s John, who’s still head chef and in charge of the kitchen. And of course, there’s Chuck… I mean, as useless as he is when it comes to helping in the dining room, he’s still the assistant manager so he’ll be in charge of helping _you_ out. So really, you’re far from being alone.”

Ashton hummed softly, though it had more to do with the way that Luke was massaging his scalp and less to do with the comforting words. At least he wasn’t panicking and doubting himself anymore, though. That’s what was most important.

Out of nowhere, Ashton giggled. “Oh my fucking god, I’m gonna be _manager_ of a place that I actually love! It’s like a dream come true!”

Luke couldn’t help but laugh with him. “Now _that’s_ the reaction that I’ve been waiting for. See, isn’t it a whole lot better when you think of things on the bright side and actually start to believe in yourself?”

“Alright, Walt Disney. That’s enough magic for one day, don’t you think?”

When Ashton gave him a funny looking grin, Luke started to laugh again. He could relax now that Ashton seemed relaxed about the situation, too. It was almost hard to believe that things had gone to complete shit just a few days before, when everything seemed to be going perfectly as of now. And with Ashton as the new manager, someone who had actually _earned_ the position and also someone whom people trusted, Luke had a feeling that things would continue going perfectly for a long, long time to come.

“Luke.”

“Hm?”

“Make me yours.”

For the second time that morning, Luke wondered if he was just hearing things. But Ashton was looking at him in a way that he rarely did, and even if he hadn’t said the words in the same way as Luke had the other day when they’d been eating breakfast together, it was obvious what he was trying to say.

Even so, it was too good to be true.

“You mean…”

“Your mate,” Ashton confirmed with a firm nod. “I want, um… to be yours.”

Luke was so astonished that he couldn’t speak for several seconds. It explained why Ashton frowned, then, taking his uncharacteristic silence as something entirely different.

“Shit. Did I not say that right?” he asked, looking extremely embarrassed. But because he shouldn’t have been embarrassed or regretting what he’d just said, Luke forced himself to snap out of it.

“No—yes!” He reached out and took one of Ashton’s hands, and in that moment it all felt too surreal. “I mean, wait. You’re sure about this?”

Ashton nodded again, a visible blush gradually making its way onto his beautiful rosy cheeks.

“Mhm… and um, obviously not because of _this_.” Ashton used his other hand to gesture between the two of them, though Luke guessed that he meant the whole promotion thing. “Because I’ve always…”

When he trailed off for more seconds than was normal, Luke gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

“You’ve always…?”

“Wanted to be yours,” Ashton blurted out, and now his face was definitely red. He stared down at their hands instead of meeting Luke’s eyes and spoke a little quieter this time. “Ever since the first time that we… you know… ever since the first time that you touched me.”

Luke was so amazed by these confessions that he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from _squealing_ like some excited teenager, but he certainly felt like one regardless. But how could he not feel this way when the man that he loved was admitting reciprocation of those feelings, because he wanted to form an actual _bond_ with Luke and he always has, even though he’d clearly been in denial before now. Or, maybe he’d just been scared or some sort of mixture of both.

Either way, nothing in the entire world could’ve ruined this moment for Luke.

“Really?”

Ashton let out an impatient sigh. “ _Yes_ , Luke. Please don’t make me admit further embarrassing things because I can assure you that—”

Luke had taken the opportunity to interrupt him with a kiss so intense that Ashton forgot entirely about the conversation. He didn’t waste any time, either, already straddling Luke and settling in his lap as if he belonged there, because to be completely honest, he did. And since both of them felt that way, then it must’ve been absolutely true.

Before they could go any further, a thought came to Luke and he pulled back from where he’d been ravaging Ashton’s neck.

“Wait,” he said, breathing hard already. “I just have one condition before we do this.”

Ashton’s eyes were wide as if he expected the worst, and really, Luke would have to teach him to stop doing that somewhere down the line. But for now, he waited until Ashton nodded to show that he was listening and would accept this condition.

“You,” Luke began, poking him in the chest, “are going to call Alexandre back, _today_ , and you’re going to tell him that you’re _ecstatic_ to take the offer that he’s given you. No exceptions. Do you understand?”

A smile began to slowly form on Ashton’s face, but he seemed to have no qualms about that. He nodded and spoke in a tone that was obviously meant to tease Luke, which wasn’t very fair at all.

“ _Je comprends_ ,” he murmured teasingly, and he pressed another soft kiss to Luke’s lips.

“Okay, scratch that. Two conditions.”

“Oh?”

“You have to do that more often,” Luke said, sliding his hands up the back of Ashton’s shirt. “The French thing.”

When Ashton proceeded to laugh at him because he knew very well that it was Luke’s weakness, Luke didn’t even care.

“You’re a dirty boy, Lukey.” With his hands lightly tugging at Luke’s hair, Ashton leaned forward and began placing a trail of kisses along his stubbly jawline. It was both sweet and seductive, and when he reached Luke’s earlobe, he whispered: “ _J'ai envie de toi_.”

Luke didn’t care that he had no idea what that meant, only that it sounded sexy as fuck and Ashton was saying it to _him_ and no one else, so that made it three times as arousing as Ashton probably meant for it to be. Not that he minded it, since that was the entire point.

The way that Ashton kissed Luke was a lot different from when he normally did, which was to say that he put more emphasis on the feeling of their lips slowly moving together and less emphasis on how thoroughly he could fuck Luke’s mouth with his tongue. Aside from that, he also allowed _Luke_ to lead the kiss for once and settled with taking on the submissive role.

Usually when they kissed each other, Ashton behaved as dominantly as possible, which Luke eventually came to realize was because Ashton didn’t want to seem like the stereotypical omega that people wrongly assumed he was: pliant, desperate, _needy_. But today, Ashton no longer gave a fuck about any of that. Maybe he’d finally come to realize that he wasn’t weak for letting another person take care of him and spoil him like he should be spoiled.

As a matter of fact, Luke could hardly wait to explore this new side of Ashton, the side that trusted him and gave him permission to do as he pleased. It was more exciting that Luke could ever describe. With his hand carefully placed on the small of Ashton’s back, he gently flipped their positions so that Ashton was lying against the couch cushions while Luke hovered over him.

His blush had to be the most beautiful thing about him, to be honest. But perhaps Luke wasn’t a reliable judge, because he thought that every part of Ashton was drop dead _gorgeous_ and he always changed his mind about which part he liked most. Deciding that he’d figure it out later, Luke leaned down to connect their lips again.

Ashton suddenly stopped him.

“Um.” His hazel eyes glanced over to the TV and then back to Luke’s face above him. “No offense, but I’d… rather not have Guy Fieri bear witness to me getting fucked into the couch. I mean, he’s not a terrible looking guy, but…”

It was times like these that had Luke questioning his decision to fall for someone as ridiculously silly as Ashton Irwin was, though he hadn’t made an active decision to do such a thing at all. In a way, it just sort of happened, but he was damn glad that it did.

And so Luke laughed at the mention of being watched by Guy Fieri as they got busy on the couch, but he had to agree that it was a tad disconcerting. That was what ultimately led them to ditching the couch in favor of heading to the bedroom, and this time when Luke overenthusiastically lifted Ashton bridal style to carry him into the bedroom, Ashton didn’t complain.

Well, that was a lie. But he didn’t complain as much as he had last time, so Luke counted it as a win.

Once in the bedroom, they took their time undressing each other, mainly because they kept pausing to bring their lips together again, hungry for the contact. But once they’d finally gotten down to their underwear and Luke was climbing back onto the bed, his sweatpants abandoned on the floor with the rest of their clothing, he noticed Ashton smiling to himself.

“What is it?” he asked, crawling up the mattress so that he was hovering over Ashton’s mostly naked body. When those pretty eyes gazed up at him, eyes that contained Luke’s favorite color, he couldn’t help smiling as well.

“Nothing. Just… thought you should know that I’ve never formed a bond with anyone before,” he admitted, shocking Luke. “I’ve been with other people before, _obviously_ , but not like… never in this way.”

He was allowing himself to be vulnerable with that confession, because admitting it aloud, it meant that he was once again trusting Luke to take care of him in a way that no one else ever had before. It was at once both overwhelming and satisfying.

“That’s okay,” he murmured sweetly, and then used a hand to brush Ashton’s bangs aside. “I’ll take care of you, I promise.”

Ashton nodded before shutting his eyes and tilting his head back further into the pillow, leaving his neck completely exposed. This was the universal sign of submission, a gesture performed by betas and omegas only when they were choosing to give themselves over by submitting to an alpha.

In other words, Ashton was officially submitting to Luke, which he had never done before now. Every time that they’d had sex, he had been in control. Now he was willingly handing the reins over to Luke, and that made Luke equally as anxious because he’d never actually bonded with an omega before. But hey, it was always good to try new things.

By leaning down and kissing along Ashton’s exposed neck, Luke was accepting him and beginning the consummation process of forming a bond between them. This mutual agreement that they’d come to had made every touch twice as effective and meaningful as it’d ever been before, and Ashton’s body responded accordingly.

Every time that Luke’s mouth touched his hot skin, Ashton would gasp or hum or moan softly as a result of it. He was already panting by the time that Luke’s mouth got to his chest, and when Luke took one of Ashton’s perk nipples in between his teeth, his back arched up from the mattress as a much more audible moan escaped him that time. It was extremely pleasing to know that it was all because of what Luke was doing to him.

When Luke had managed to kiss and lick his way down to Ashton’s hipbones, Ashton was practically a writhing mess beneath him. Every sensation pulled a sweet sound from him, and Luke even got the chance to hear that lovely whimpering noise that he so rarely heard because Ashton was always trying to restrain himself. But he wasn’t attempting to hide anything now, both his mind and body yielding to the present moment.

“Can I keep going?” Luke whispered against Ashton’s skin. He licked over the little bite mark that he’d left along Ashton’s hip, then glanced up at Ashton through his lashes as he waited for permission.

“Y-Yes,” Ashton panted out, desperation written all over his face. “Please, Luke, I—”

He said nothing else after that, but he didn’t really need to. Luke nodded in understanding and sat up enough to do what needed to be done, sliding his fingers into the waistband of Ashton’s briefs.

“Hips up, babe.”

Ashton obediently lifted his hips from the bed to allow Luke to remove the last barrier between them, and once it was out of the way, he let out a deep sigh of content. Ashton had always been fairly comfortable with his own nudity, so he didn’t shy away from Luke’s heavy gaze. Instead, he bit his bottom lip and smiled up at Luke, knowing exactly the type of effect that he had on the alpha. But Luke was aware of the effect that he could have on Ashton as well, so he took the opportunity to do what he did best.

A soft gasp escaped Ashton when Luke’s mouth came in contact with his cock, a loving kiss pressed to the head that soon led to the rest of him being engulfed in that familiar heat. Having done this so many times now, Luke knew exactly what Ashton liked and what it took to make him lose it. That was why Luke used his multitasking skills to tease Ashton’s hole with his fingers while he slowly bobbed his head up and down, because being teased like this was one of Ashton’s weaknesses when it came to sex.

“ _Merde_ ,” Ashton gasped. “ _Suces moi la bite… mm, oui—juste comme ça_.”

The sudden switching up of languages surprised Luke in the best possible way, and as he pulled off of Ashton’s cock, a thin trail of saliva connected to his pink lips, he smiled excitedly and said to him:

“Oh god, _yes_ , keep doing that.”

And so Ashton did. While Luke sucked him off and simultaneously fingered him open, Ashton continued babbling dirty phrases in French that only made a small bit of sense to Luke, but managed to turn him on anyway. At one point he was sure that Ashton had just resorted to muttering every curse word that he knew in the book, his sentences a long string of swears mixed in with the occasional moan and hiss, but that was perfectly okay. Luke would take every positive response that he could get.

“Are you close?” he asked, because he could sense that that was exactly the case.

Ashton made a sound that was probably meant to be a yes, only it came out as some sort of mixture between the French word and the English word. His poor brain must’ve been so confused right then. Luke huffed out a laugh, finding it amusing _and_ sexy, and went back to licking up the pre-come that continued to drip from Ashton’s hard cock.

Wanting the finale to be a great one, Luke took the whole thing into his mouth and bobbed his head at a much faster pace than before. He matched it with the pace of his fingers fucking Ashton’s hole open, and it sure as hell wasn’t as easy as one might think, but Luke wasn’t a quitter. At least not most of the time, and certainly never when it came to pleasuring his partners. So with great motivation, he kept going nonstop even when Ashton’s orgasm didn’t happen when he thought that it definitely would.

Eventually, Luke realized that it was being prolonged on purpose. He slowed the pace of his fingers to a near halt and pulled off of Ashton’s cock again in order to glance up at his face, finding that he really was trying his best not to come. His eyes were tightly clenched shut and he was biting his bottom lip so hard that he might’ve started to bleed.

“You’re holding back,” Luke said, his breathing ragged but voice clear enough to be understood. “Don’t.”

Ashton finally opened his eyes and stopped biting on his bottom lip. His surprised expression told Luke that he hadn’t realized what he was doing at all, and because of that, he was starting to feel embarrassed—which would explain why he refused to meet Luke’s eyes.

“M’sorry, I—I don’t know how to…” Ashton trailed off and gestured with his hand, though that didn’t make much sense either. He seemed to realize this, so he sighed. “I meant that I’m not used to just… completely giving up control like this.”

 _Ah_. Well, that made a lot more sense. Luke smiled in a way that he hoped would be reassuring.

“That’s okay, I’ll show you how.”

Luke removed his fingers and crawled back up the mattress a bit, just until he was at face level with Ashton. Then, he leaned forward and kissed him. It was a slow kiss, much like they had been doing on the couch, only more intense because of their current situation. Then without breaking the kiss, he reached down and grasped Ashton’s cock again, swallowing the omega’s gasp.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Ashton groaned against his mouth as Luke slowly jerked him off.

“Like this, see?” Luke murmured. He tilted his head to the side to kiss along Ashton’s jaw, and whispered, “Just let go…”

He kept his hand moving at the same pace, but giving Ashton kisses seemed to make all the difference. Luke felt the moment that Ashton began tensing up beneath him as the pleasure became too much, and when he couldn’t contain it any longer, his release left him gasping for air and clinging to Luke as if the alpha was the only thing holding him together anymore. Luke smiled at his accomplishment but continued to kiss Ashton through the whole thing, and soon enough, Ashton had gone completely still.

“That felt good, didn’t it?” Luke asked. He wasn’t just referring to the orgasm, either.

Ashton hummed at Luke’s soothing tone and simply blinked at him for several moments. He was smiling lazily and looking more relaxed than Luke had probably ever seen him before, to be honest.

“It felt _amazing_ ,” he finally said, speaking quietly. “Especially to just… let go.”

Luke kissed him on the forehead and said, “I’m glad.”

The moment of comfortable silence that they shared was very sweet, but Luke was still the dirty boy that Ashton accused him of being. That was why he retracted the hand still partially covered in slick as well as Ashton’s come, and teasingly sucked on two of his fingers while still making eye contact with Ashton.

“Fucking hell,” Ashton said with a sigh, watching Luke with wide eyes.

Smirking, Luke offered his hand to Ashton, who obediently opened his mouth and accepted those same fingers. He took the opportunity to use that sinful tongue of his, swirling it around the fingers and humming at the taste. When he started to suck on them, eyes never leaving Luke’s, that was when Luke knew that he couldn’t take it anymore. He _needed_ to be inside of Ashton within the next few seconds.

Of course Ashton knew exactly what he must’ve been feeling at that point, because when he finally stopped sucking on Luke’s fingers and essentially torturing him, he nodded and said in a cheeky tone:

“Think I’m ready for you to fuck me now.”

Luke exhaled the most relieved sigh. “Thank _god_. Thought I’d never hear you say it.”

Since Ashton had already been prepped, all that Luke had to do was get rid of his own underwear and then get into position in between Ashton’s legs. It was unusual and exciting for several reasons: the first was that they’d never done it with Ashton on his back before, due to the whole needing to feel dominant thing, so this was going to be a brand new experience.

The second reason was that Luke was going to be able to _knot Ashton_. For real this time. It wasn’t one of his fantasies or one of his wet dreams, it was really going to happen—after all, knotting an omega was essential for the bonding process. He’d wanted to give Ashton his knot for the longest time and now it would become reality.

And lastly, once they were finished, they would officially be mates. Luke was going to be Ashton’s alpha and Ashton was going to be his omega. Everyone would know that they belonged to each other, too. Even the thought of it was almost too good to be true.

“Hey,” Ashton whispered. He lifted his hand and cupped Luke’s cheek, getting his attention again. “I’m right here.”

Luke let out the softest laugh. “Don’t worry, I’m with you.”

Not wanting to wait any longer, he began to push inside. Ashton’s eyebrows twitched with the gradual stretching of his slicked up hole, but he didn’t once close his eyes or look away from Luke’s face. As a matter of fact, neither of them did. They gazed into each other’s eyes the entire time, as if to say, _I see you. I feel you_.

 _I love you_.

Because within that moment in time, they were all that the other needed.

As soon as Luke bottomed out, he let out a deep breath and leaned closer to rest his forehead against Ashton’s, already overwhelmed.

“Jesus fucking _Christ_ ,” he breathed out. “I am never… never getting used to this feeling...”

Ashton half-laughed, half-moaned, and in a rather sassy tone he replied with something entirely in French that ended with the word _connard_. Luke may not have been fluent in the language of love, but he knew most of the curse words (partially thanks to Ashton) and he certainly knew when he was being called an _asshole_. So in other words, Ashton was saying that he had no time for Luke to be frozen in amazement at how good it felt to have his cock shoved up his ass. He wanted Luke to get on with it, and well, Luke wanted that too.

Half a second later, Luke bucked his hips without warning. Ashton gasped, eyes blown wide, and he dug his fingernails into Luke’s back as if trying to hold on for dear life. He was much more prepared for the second thrust, Luke’s hips sharply snapping forward with reckless abandon, at which point Ashton tilted his head up and kissed him as if he hadn’t done so in years.

“Oh god,” Ashton gasped out, one particular thrust seemingly snatching the air from his lungs. “You’re—fuck—stronger than y-you look…”

That brought a breathy laugh out of Luke, the words serving as an ego booster in addition to the way that he was clearly making Ashton lose his mind. He would have been able to support that statement even further by leaning back, grabbing Ashton by the hips and fucking him into the next century, but he preferred to keep every inch of their bodies as closely as possible. And he knew that the feeling was mutual, since Ashton was still gripping him tightly.

“Glad to see that— _someone_ noticed,” he said, a smirk on his face even as he used a hand to brush the hair from Ashton’s eyes that always seemed to keep getting in the way.

“Why do you j-just—you always—” Ashton’s mouth fell open as a beautiful moan escaped him. He could hardly get the words out at this point, and when Luke moved again, his eyes practically rolled back into his head.

“Why do I… what?” Luke asked. He wouldn’t deny that he was thoroughly amused. “Can’t you— _mmh_ —finish your sentences? I can’t read your mind.”

“You… You cocky fucker,” Ashton responded with a laugh that broke off into another high-pitched moan. “God—why do you always have to be so damn _cocky_ and… and why d-does it turn me _on_? I hate—”

He was cut off by a sudden loud cry as Luke brushed up against his prostate, his taut body shaking with it. The alpha kissed his trembling lips and continued rocking into him, hitting that spot again and again and without fail.

“You hate— _what_?” Luke teased, panting against Ashton’s swollen lips. Really, he couldn’t help himself anymore. “You hate me? Nonsense, you _love_ me. Love me and m-my cocky mouth.”

“Both,” Ashton whispered. His eyes were open again and he was staring back at Luke. “Hate you a-and love you.”

At that moment, Luke was incredibly thankful for the fact that they weren’t fucking while standing up. Otherwise he certainly would have slipped and fell on his ass again, shocked by the words that had just come from Ashton’s lips. But since they were lying on a comfortable bed and _not_ standing, he responded with a pleased moan and increased the pace of his thrusts, fucking into Ashton faster and deeper so that the bed began to shake.

“Y-Yeah?” he gasped, sliding his right hand along Ashton’s arm until he could grab the omega’s hand and link their fingers together. “Tell me, Ash… tell it to me again. Please, I—I need to hear you s-say it.”

“ _Je t'aime_ ,” Ashton moaned in such a way that it sent shivers down Luke’s spine and curled around his middle. “ _Je t'aime, Lukey, j-je t'aime… ah, mon dieu—je t'aime vraiment, enfoiré_.”

With every single word, Luke felt the heat that was building up on the inside getting hotter to rival the heat that he felt outside of himself. He felt how his cock began to swell up at the base as Ashton’s hole clenched tightly around him, merciless in its hot grip. Ashton’s lovely eyes widened at the realization that it was coming, because he could feel it, too.

“Knot me,” he cried, squeezing Luke’s hand and clawing at his back with the other. “Come on, g-give it to me, I… I need your fucking knot—”

A deep growl rumbled within Luke’s throat.

“Oh, fuck, _Ashton_ —”

All of a sudden the intense and unbearable heat was replaced with pleasant warmth, and Luke felt as if he was outside of his own body, watching himself in slow motion during the exact moment that he finally knotted Ashton, the base of his cock swollen to its peak and locked in place as he came. Then reality shifted and suddenly Luke was seeing himself from Ashton’s eyes now, and he could feel everything that Ashton was feeling in that moment; the stretch of Luke’s cock, the warmth of Luke’s seed filling his insides, his own orgasm spilling on his stomach at the same time, and the immense amount of pure love and trust that he felt for Luke, his lover, his alpha, his _mate_.

When Luke’s soul returned to his own body, he felt the subtle presence of Ashton that lingered inside of him, just like his presence remained inside of Ashton. It was almost like being reborn, only now they had a piece of each other in both body and soul. Although Luke had experienced what it felt like to form a bond, he could honestly say that it had never felt like _this_.

An unknown amount of time passed before Luke’s vision finally cleared and he was no longer seeing stars, nor was his heart threatening to pop right out of his chest. Now he lay on top of an unmoving Ashton, his swollen cock still locked into place where it would remain over the next few minutes until his body was finished performing its duty. And instead of feeling exhausted and sleepy like he usually did after sex and an intense orgasm, Luke felt more alive than he’d ever felt before.

Using his palms for balance, Luke pushed himself so that he was resting on his elbows and had a good view of Ashton’s face. His brand new mate had his eyes shut and his breathing was slowed, but he was not asleep. If anything, he was trying to adjust to the unfamiliar feeling of being bonded with another soul.

For first timers, it had the potential of being _terrifying_.

“…Ash?” Luke whispered, breaking the silence. He placed his hand on Ashton’s cheek.

Ashton immediately responded to the touch. His eyes fluttered open and he unconsciously leaned into the palm resting on his cheek, seemingly craving the contact. It was one of the few side effects of a newly formed bond: clinginess.

“I… I can feel you,” he whispered back. Without looking away from Luke, he brought a hand up and touched his own chest. “In here…”

Luke’s face broke into a smile, his love and adoration for his mate written all over it.

“What do I feel like?” he asked, amused.

Ashton blinked several times before deciding. “Like… home.”

It was impossible for Luke to stop himself laughing. His laughter ended up making Ashton laugh, and then they were both sharing a joyous laughter that brought silliness and even more happiness to this special moment between them.

“That’s so cliché,” Ashton said afterwards, still giggling a little. “M’sorry.”

“No, no, it’s wonderful!” Luke insisted. He pressed a single kiss to Ashton’s lips. “You feel like that for me, too.”

It was very pleasing to see Ashton smile at that, dimples and all. He reached up and placed his hand at the back of Luke’s neck, pulling him into another kiss. This one was soft and unrushed, their lips sliding together just for the sake of physical contact. When Ashton eventually pulled back and let his head rest against the pillow, he sighed deeply.

“It’s like… now that you’re a part of me, everything that’s happened between us so far has become so… obvious?” he said, and it was apparent to Luke that he was just thinking out loud. “I mean, I feel dumb for not realizing it since the very beginning, that this is how it was always supposed to be.”

“Well, maybe it wasn’t,” Luke said, his fingers playing in Ashton’s hair as usual. “Maybe everything happened because we made it happen.”

He hadn’t been trying to sound deep, he’d only said the first thing that came to mind, but Ashton apparently approved of it anyway. He smiled warmly and pulled Luke closer with his legs, but he couldn’t have been that comfortable with all of Luke’s weight on top of him like that. Since Luke was a good mate, he carefully rolled to the side so that he was no longer on top of Ashton and instead resting on the mattress, and he wrapped an arm around Ashton’s waist to pull him closer so that they were facing each other. There was still a bit of time to go before he’d be able to pull out and clean Ashton up, but for now, they would simply enjoy the moment.

For a minute, all that they did was stare at each other in silence. It was nice because, for the first time ever, Luke knew exactly what Ashton was feeling right then. He could feel it from deep within his chest, due to the heightened empathetic abilities that came from bonding with another person. Since they were physically close to each other and their bond was fresh, the connection was so strong that it was easy to mix up his own emotions with Ashton’s. Because of this, Luke felt the exact moment when a hint of anxiety began to rise within his mate.

“What’s wrong?” Luke asked, inching even closer until their noses were touching. Ashton deeply inhaled his scent and let out an equally as deep sigh, and though it wasn’t much, Luke could feel that it relaxed him.

“Nothing, just…” He chuckled softly. “I can feel your heart beating. I can feel _everything_. It’s… pretty intense.”

Luke hummed in agreement because it really was intense, the feelings that they now shared. But it was intense in a really good way, a _beautiful_ way, and soon enough Ashton would think so too. With a smile, Luke nuzzled him to provide extra comfort.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it sooner than you know. And besides, there’s lots of benefits to this. For instance, now you’ll be able to tell exactly when I’m horny.”

When Ashton smacked him on the arm, Luke could only laugh because he’d already seen that coming.

“Good to know that this changes nothing between us,” Ashton said with a sigh. “You’re still an insufferable dork and for some reason, I still love you anyway. Well, it is what it is.”

Ashton pressed a single kiss to Luke’s nose to show that he meant those words in jest, even though Luke could already _feel_ what he meant. But Luke really liked being given kisses, so he wasn’t going to start complaining now.

Over the next couple of minutes they were silent again, and it was so comfortable that Ashton was beginning to doze off even though Luke’s cock was literally still buried inside of him. But the swelling had gone down and soon he’d be able to pull out, so for now, Luke idly dragged his fingertips up and down the length of Ashton’s back and occasionally kissed him.

When a sudden thought came to mind, Luke was all too eager to share it.

“I think I’ve come up with a third condition.”

Ashton, who was half-asleep at this point, only hummed to show that he was listening.

“You’re going to have to teach me French.”

It came as no surprise when Ashton was suddenly awake again, giggling in Luke’s ear. Then, he whispered in a sultry tone that he knew would do certain things to Luke.

“ _Oui oui. Je promets_.”

***

“Alright, now taste this and tell me what you think.”

As always, Ashton opened his mouth and allowed Luke to feed him a piece of the crab cake that he’d just made. Luke watched nervously as his mate chewed the food in his mouth, hoping that it at least tasted like a crab cake or something _similar_ , since this was the first time that Luke had ever made this particular dish.

Finally, Ashton gave him a thumbs up and hummed at the delicious taste. Luke sighed with relief.

“It’s really good, you should give yourself more credit,” Ashton said, grinning.

Before Luke could thank him for the constant support, Ashton took his hand and raised it to his lips. He maintained eye contact the entire time that he teasingly licked the residue from Luke’s index finger with the tip of his tongue, and the act was so simple yet so _thrilling_ that Luke swallowed before he started to drool. But then he shook his head and snapped out of it, because this was not the time for such games, unfortunately.

“Not fair,” Luke said with a pout, retracting his hand. “Don’t start something that you can’t finish.”

Ashton gasped and poked him in the side. “That’s rich, coming from the guy who left me in the bathroom on my knees!”

“Oh, _come on_ ,” Luke groaned, rolling his eyes. But he couldn’t help laughing afterwards. “You’re gonna have to let that go someday!”

“Never!”

There was a knock at the door just then, meaning that their guests were right on time. Since Luke’s hands were dirty and he was busy plating the food, Ashton ducked out of the kitchen to answer the door without even being asked. Of course, that was just one of the many benefits of being connected with each other through a bond; he always knew what Luke wanted before it had even been said.

Tonight, Luke had fixed up a bunch of delicious crab cakes with a side of baked potatoes and grilled asparagus. It was a lot different from the things that he usually cooked for himself, but ever since he and Ashton became mates, Ashton had been bugging him about eating healthier things like vegetables. Luke occasionally teased him about being such a mom, just because teasing Ashton was still the greatest thing in the world, and it sometimes ended with him riding Luke on the living room couch.

A moment later, Luke heard his friends entering the apartment because he actually saw them.

“Okay, but that’s pretty much what I said.”

“No, you said _twelve packs_. I heard you loud and clear, Michael.”

“You heard nothing. Ashton, back me up here.”

“Hey now, don’t try dragging me into the middle of this.”

Luke turned away from the kitchen counter and his masterpiece when the footsteps came near, but before he could even greet them, he paused in temporary shock when he saw the number of shopping bags that they carried with them. From the sound of the bottles softly clinking together, he could tell that they were the packs of coronas that he’d asked them to bring. However, for that many bottles of beer, they should’ve been hosting a miniature party instead of a small get-together between good friends.

“Um,” he said, then paused again. He honestly didn’t know where to start.

Calum and Michael looked at him and paused as well. Then, they began to laugh, much to Luke’s confusion.

“Nice apron!” Michael said with an obvious hint of sarcasm.

Luke looked down at the thin apron that he wore whenever he was cooking a large meal. On the front was a printed image of a male cartoon figure with a six-pack abs and pecs the size of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger’s. The figure wore nothing but a thong that showed off his muscular thighs and just barely concealed his genitalia. Ashton had bought it for him as a joke, but Luke proudly wore it anyway.

“Thanks?” he responded, pretending to be clueless as to why they found it so hilarious. “Ash said it would help me bring all the boys to the yard, and well, here you all are.”

Calum snorted and Michael looked as if he was about to come up with a brutal retort, but Ashton intercepted it.

“Oh, leave my boy alone,” he said as he carried the last of the bags to the counter. “He looks sexy in it. Now on to important matters, like what the hell you expect us to do with all of these beers.”

“I was just about to ask about that,” Luke chimed in. “Why so many?”

“Well—” Michael began.

Calum interrupted him. “It would seem that _someone_ misread your text. He bought twelve _packs_ of six bottles each instead of twelve _total_.”

When all eyes were on Michael, he shrugged guiltily but offered no solution.

“Listen, man. You can never go wrong with extra beer. Am I right or am I wrong?”

They hated to admit it, but he had a point there. Oh well, Luke supposed that they could keep as many as they could fit within the refrigerator and allow his friends to take the rest home with them. None of that mattered at the moment, because now it was time to eat and all of them were famished.

Over the next few minutes, they all gathered around the small table with the plates that Luke had fixed for them and far too many bottles of beer placed in the middle of the table. None of them cared about the alcohol predicament any longer, because they had begun to focus on the one reason that they were all gathered here tonight.

That reason, of course, was Ashton Irwin.

“Let’s hear it for the man of the hour!” Luke announced, raising his beer into the air.

Michael and Calum followed suit, cheering and hooting while Ashton grinned from ear to ear and tried to hide his obvious blush. He was so cute that Luke wanted to kiss him, but he also didn’t want to add on to his friends’ teasing fodder that always seemed to be filled to the brim.

“You’ve been manager for one full week and you haven’t cracked yet,” Calum said. “That’s impressive.”

Ashton shrugged, remaining humble. “Well, you know, I have a lot of help.”

“Yeah, right. Just admit that you’re Superman already,” Michael teased. When Ashton giggled and shook his head, he said, “Alright, alright. Keep your identity to yourself, then. But how about a speech instead?”

“Hell yeah. Speech! Speech!” Calum began to chant, and when Luke and Michael joined in, Ashton finally caved.

“Fine, fine! You’ll get your damn speech.”

Ashton took a moment to clear his throat. He put on a slightly more serious expression, but Luke could feel in his chest that Ashton was smiling on the inside. As a matter of fact, he was _glowing_.

“To be honest with you all, I don’t even know where to start. But what I can say is that it’s been a long, rocky road since the day that I started working at Le Chatelier’s and it’s still hard for me to believe that I’ve come this far. After all, people don’t expect omegas to rise up to positions of leadership, and I guess I started to tell myself that, too—but you know what? To hell with all of them. I am where I am today because I’m a damn hard worker and I never gave up the fight, and it’s thanks to people like you who believed in me and pushed me forward, that I can sit here now and call myself your manager _and_ your friend. So, thank you. For everything.”

When he had finished, it was silent all for two seconds before the other three began to cheer twice as loud as they had before. And this time, Luke really did lean over to smooch Ashton on the cheek, not caring if his friends would tease him about it later or not. To be fair, he’d seen them doing certain things that he’d rather not mention, so they could deal with a bit of kissing.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Ashton said. He lifted his own bottle of beer into the air and shouted, “Fuck the system! _I_ run this bitch!”

The cheering instantly turned into laughter, and Calum laughed so hard that he began coughing as tears formed in his eyes.

“Now _that’s_ what I call a fucking speech!” Michael said, and he softly clinked his bottle with Ashton’s. “To Irwin!”

“To Irwin!” they all repeated.

Even Ashton. Because he was excited and cute and Luke loved him very, very much.

“Love you,” Luke said aloud this time, just as he leaned over to give Ashton another cheek kiss.

Ashton chuckled and said, “At least give me a _real_ kiss, babe. I’ve fuckin’ earned it, haven’t I?”

Although Luke rolled his eyes at his overconfident, greedy little mate, he was still smiling.

“So picky,” he muttered, then gave Ashton exactly what he wanted.

It wasn’t much of a surprise when Calum started to whistle at them, and then Michael proceeded to whine:

“Eat his face later, I’m ready to eat real food!”

And so together, they ate.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I got the Luke in Apron idea from this [dumb shit](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/1c/e7/13/1ce713e3ff9671ec15f054917d08201e.jpg) he wore that one time)
> 
> Thank you to all who has read this and thank you for the feedback that you continuously give me im so very grateful for all of it!!! And sorry that I have a habit of disappearing for a million months and then randomly showing up with yet another fic lmao but I'm back in school again so :(
> 
> anyway feel free to hmu @faesey.tumblr


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